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BIBLE    THOUGHTS 

/  OP 


REV.  HENRY 


MINISTER    OF    CAMDEN    CHAPEL,    CAMBERWELL,    NEAR    LONDON. 


SELECTED  FROM   HIS   PUBLISHED   DISCOURSES. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THB 

AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150  NASSAU-STREET,   NEW-YORK. 


U.  Eaoakaw,  riiiuor. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTICE. 

The  author  of  the  Discourses  from  which 
these  Selections  have  been  made,  is  esteemed 
one  of  the  most  able  and  eloquent  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England.  He  ia 
constantly  listened  to  with  breathless  attention, 
by  crowded  and  intelligent  audiences;  and 
though  sometimes,  in  the  fervor  of  a  warm 
imagination  and  glowing  religious  affections, 
he  may  be  considered  as  somewhat  transcend- 
ing the  limits  of  a  pure  and  chastened  style,  it 
is  believed  all  who  possess  any  measure  of  that 
spirit  by  which  the  preacher  appears  to  be  ac- 
tuated, must  admire  and  be  profited  by  his  pul- 
pit efforts. 

No  doubt  those  who  have  the  means  of  ac- 
cess to  the  original  Sermons,  will  desire  to  pe- 
ruse them  at  large  as  they  were  preached  by 
this  eminent  minister  of  Christ ;  but  it  has  been 


4  INTRODUCTORY    NOTICE. 

thought,  that  a  collection  of  a  portion  of  his 
beautifully  expressed  thoughts  on  particular  to- 
pics would  be  an  acceptable  present  to  those 
who  may  not  be  thus  favored,  and  that  the  pas- 
sages which  are  here  presented  are  calculated 
to  promote  the  interests  of  evangelical  truth 
and  righteousness. 

May  the  Divine  blessing  attend  their  perusal, 
and  make  them  instrumental  in  exciting  in- 
creased reverence  for  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  a 
Divine  revelation,  love  to  God  their  Author, 
faith  in  the  adorable  Redeemer,  attachment  to 
the  great  doctrines  of  salvation,  and  a  sacred 
regard  to,that  holiness  of  heart  and  life,  which 
is  the  only  decisive  evidence  of  their  sanctified 

impression  on  the  soul  of  the  believer. 

J.  M. 


CONTENTS, 


L  The  Bible page  11 

2.  Value  of  the  Bible  in  reference  to  the  present  life.      .        .        .12 

3.  Sufficiency  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,      .        .        .        .13 

4.  Past  and  present  Evidences  of  Christianity  compared,        .        .    15 

5.  Self-evidencing  power  of  Scripture, 19 

6.  Testimony  of  Experience  to  the  truth  of  Scripture,  .        .        .21 

7.  Testimony  of  uneducated  believer  to  the  truth  of  Scripture,    .    22 

8.  The  poor  man's  evidence  of  Christianity,    .....    24 

9.  Testimony  of  a  Deist  to  the  Bible, 28 

10.  The  Bible  emphatically  the  poor  man's  book,      ....    29 

11.  Language  of  Scripture, 32 

12.  Apocryphal  writings,  ........    33 

13.  Reason,  30 

14.  Credulity, 37 

15.  Moral  and  intellectual  benefits  of  the  Bible,        ....    41 

16.  The  Bible  a  promoter  of  social  happiness,  .  .        .47 

17.  Difficulties  of  Scripture, 49 

18.  Apostolic  Epistles,         .        .      ...       .        .       .       *       .        .53 

19.  Unavoidable  that   there  should  be  things  in  Scripture  hard  to 

be  understood,' 58 

30.  What  we  know  not  now  we  shall  know  hereafter,      .        .        .57 
SI.  Immortality  of  the  Soul  clearly  discovered  only  by  the  Gospel,     59 

22.  Atheist  and  worldly-minded  man  compared,       .        .        .        .61 

23.  Gospel  addresses  itself  to  the  fears  of  men,         .        •        •        .63 

24.  Aduptedneu  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Poor 6* 


1 


* 


6  CONTENTS. 

25.  Neglect  of  the  Gospel ,  page  66 

26.  Ingratitude  of  rejecting  the  Gospel, 67 

27.  Awfulncss  of  being  deprived  of  the  Gospel,        .        .        .        .69 

23.  Advantages  of  religious  instruction, 70 

29.  Cautions  against  scepticism, 74 

SO.  Preaching,       .  ...    7 75 

31.  Ineffectiveness  of  Sermons, 76 

32.  Parable  of  the  Sower, 78 

33.  Preaching  always  profitable  to  the  right-minded  hearer,      .        .    79 

34.  Effects  of  a  view  of  the  works  of  creation,         .       .        .        .80 

35.  Heathen  before  Christ,  82 

36.  Universal  acknowledgment  of  Deity,  .       .       .       .        .83 

37.  Unity  of  the  Godhead, 84 

38.  Persons  in  the  Trinity, 84 

39.  Mystery, 87 

40.  God's  Eternity, •    87 

41.  God's  Omnipresence,     . 88 

42.  God's  Omnipresence  wonderful, .    90 

43.  Disregard  of  God's  Omniscience, 92 

44.  Foreknowledge  of  God, 94 

45.  Justice  of  God  manifested  in  the  visible  creation,       .    §         .  -  98 

46.  Justice  of  God  fully  proved  only  by  revelation,  ...    99 

47.  The  love  of  God  fully  demonstrated  only  by  Revelation,    .        .  102 

48.  Tenderness  of  God, 105 

49.  Mistaken  notions  of  God's  love,  .  ....  106 

50.  Providence  of  God 107 

51.  No  man  independent, 112 

52.  God's  special  Providence,  .        .  .  .  113 

53.  God's  attributes  bind  him  to  punish  the  Guilty,  .  .  114 

54.  God  the  Universal  Proprietor,       .        .  -115 

55.  Dependence  of  nil  upon  God.        .  .  .118 


\ 


CONTENTS.  7 

56.  God's  goodness  in  providing  for  the  Poor,          . .      .       .  page  117 
£7.  Claims  of  God, 119 

58.  God  all  in  all 121 

59.  God  the  Founder  of  his  church,  .        .        .        .  #     .        .123 

60.  Human  Misery, 124 

61.  Depravity  and  inability  of  Man, 126 

62.  Redemption, *        ...  128 

63.  Fullness  of  Redemption, 130 

64.  Enmity  between  Man  and  Satan,  .       .        .        .        .        .  132 

65.  Conflicts  of  the  Church  with  Satan 134 

66.  Salvation— its  greatness, 137 

67.  Christ  the  image  of  the  Invisible  God, 139 

68.  All  things  created  by  and  for  Christ, 143 

69.  Christ's  Humiliation, 144 

70.  Humanity  of  Christ, 145 

71.  Poverty  of  Christ, .       .147 

72.  Christ  our  pattern  in  humility, 150 

73.  Purity  of  Christ's  character  the  cause  of  his  rejection,        .        .151 

74.  Christ  humbling  himself  to  the  death  of  the  Cross,    .        .        .154 

75.  Christ's  Victory  over  Satan, 157 

76.  Christ  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life, 159 

77.  Intercessorship  of  Christ, 160 

78.  Christ  both  Redeemer  and  Judge, 162 

79.  Mediatorial  Kingdom  of  Christ, 166 

80.  Mediatorial  Kingdom  of  Christ  not  Eternal,         ....  171 

81.  Believer's  experience  of  Christ's  sufficiency,        .        .        .        .173 

82.  Merit, 175 

83.  Men's  disposition  to  claim  Merit, 177 

84.  Self-Righteousness, 178 

85.  Angels  cannot  Merit, 182 

86.  Man's  Works  not  Meritorious,      .        .        .        .        .        .        .  185 


8  CONTENTS. 

87.  The  Holy  Spirit, page  186 

88.  Universality  of  the  strivings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  .        .        .189 

89.  Danger  of  Stifling  Conviction, 193 

90.  Repentance,  195 

91.  Repentance — its  proper  place, 198 

92.  Repentance  not  Meritorious,        .......  200 

93.  Conviction  and  Conversion, 201 

91.  Faith, 203 

95.  Experience  the  Touchstone  of  Faith, 204 

96.  Justification, .        .205 

97.  Why  is  the  justified  Man  not  at  once  removed  to  Glory  ?  .        .  205 

98.  Believers  triumph  over  Satan, 206 

99.  Faith  of  experienced  Christians  proof  against  the  assaults  of 

Infidelity,  .        . 209 

100.  Believers  the  salt  of  the  earth 212 

101.  Hope', 214 

102.  Hope  the  Anchor  of  the  Soul, 215 

103.  The  Anchor  within  the  Vail, 217 

104.  Hope  the  Anchor  of  the  Christian's  soul  against  false  doctrine,    220 

105.  Hope  the  Anchor  of  the  Christian's  Soul  under  trouble,     .        .  222 

106.  Assurance, 224 

107.  Election, 226 

108.  Election  and  Free  Agency, 227 

109.  Abuso  of  the  doctrine  of  Election, 230 

110.  Case  of  Pharaoh  applied  to  the  Impenitent,         .        .        .  233 

111.  Freeness  of  Grace  no  encouragement  to  Sin,      .        .        .        .237 

112.  "Whatsoever  a  man  so  weth  that  shall  he  reap,"  .        .        .238 

113.  The  Lord's  Supper, 240 

114.  The  Resurrection  of  the  Body  not  a  doctrine  of  Natural  Religion,  243 

115.  Resurrection  of  the  body— Christ  its  Author,      .        .        .  246 

116.  The  Believer  as«ured  of  his  Resurrection*    ....         .247 


CONTENTS.  9 

117.  Resurrection  of  the  body,  its  wonderful  character,     .         page  249 

118.  Heaven, 252 

119.  Happiness  of  Heaven, 255 

120.  Holiness  of  Heaven, 257 

121.  Final  Rewards  proportioned  to  the  Works  of  the  Believer,        .  253 

122.  Future  Punishment, 260 

123.  Fearful  doom  of  the  Wicked,      .        .  .  262 

124.  Piety  a  strengthener  and  enlarger  of  the  Mind,  .        .        .264 

125.  A  National  Wickedness,  its  effects  on  the  Righteous,  .        .  267 

126.  The  Christian's  feelings  at  the  aboundings  of  Wickedness,      .  269 

127.  Christian  zeal  increased  by  the  prevalence  of  Wickedness,       .  270 

128.  Christian  Influence, ,       ...  272 

129.  Strive, .        .        .273 

130.  Parable  of  the  two  Sons, 275 

131.  Present  rewards  of  Well-doing, 277 

132.  Ambition, 279 

133.  Men's  abuse  of  the  Divine  Forbearance,  ;  262 

134.  Warning, 284 

135.  Consideration,        ...........  285 

136.  Want  of  Consideration, 286 

137.  Futurity,         ...........  287 

138.  Socinianism, ■      „  290 

139.  Backslider, ' .        .        .        .        .290 

140.  Dauger  of  the  removal  of  the  Candlestick 292 

141.  Believer  profited  by  the  experience  of  others,     .        .        .  295 

142.  Religious  Biography, 297 

143.  Inequality  of  worldly  Condition, 299 

144.  "  The  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together,"  .       .        .        .301 

145.  Existence  of  Poverty  promotive  of  social  Virtues,      .        .        .  302 

146.  Pious  Tover ty, .'  305 

147.  Spiritual  advantages  of  Poverty,         .        .        .        »  .307 


10  CONTENTS. 

148.  Industry,         .  page  310 

149.  Popular  Education,        / .316 

150.  Afflictions  of  the  Righteous,  . 317 

151.  Consolations  of  Religion  on  the  loss  of  Friends,         .        .  319 
J  52.  Persecution,            323 

153.  Trials  of  the  Christian, .  324 

154.  Death-bed  of  the  Righteous, 323 

155.  Parents, 320 

156.  The  Young,    . 331 

157.  Missions, 333 

158.  Past  and  present  Times, .  335 

159.  Insanity, 330 

160.  Controversy, 337 

161.  Memory 339 

162.  The  Jews, ..341 

163.  Christ's  denunciation  of  the  Jews,        .        .  .           347 

164.  Christ's  lamentation  over  Jerusalem,            .    '    .        .  .           350 

165.  Conversion  of  the  Jews 353 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


1.  The  Bible. 

We  are  bound  to  sit  down  to  the  study  of 
Scripture  with  a  meek  and  chastened  understand- 
ing. We  tell  the  young  more  especially,  who, 
in  the  pride  of  an  undisciplined  intellect,  would 
turn  to  St.  Paul  as  they  turn  to  Bacon  or  Locke, 
arguing  that  what  was  written  for  man  must  be 
comprehensible  by  man — we  tell  them  that  no- 
thing is  excellent  out  of  its  place  5  and  that,  in  the 
examination  of  Scripture,  then  only  does  reason 
show  herself  noble,  when,  conscious  of  the  pre- 
sence of  a  king,  the  knee  is  bent,  and  the  head 
uncovered.  The  docility  and  submissiveness  of  a 
child  alone  befit  the  student  of  the  Bible ;  and  if 
we  would  not  have  the  whole  volume  darkened, 
its  simplest  truths  eluding  the  grasp  of  our  un- 
derstanding ;  or  gaining,  at  least,  no  hold  on  our 
affections,  we  must  lay  aside  the  feelings  which 
we  carry  into  the  domains  of  science  and  philo- 
sophy ;  not  arming  ourselves  with  a  chivalrous  re- 
solve to  conquer ;  but  with  one  which  it  is  a  thou- 
sand-fold harder  either  to  form  or  execute,  to 
yield. 


12  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

2.  Value  of  the  Bible  in  reference  to  the 
present  life. 

If  it  be  certain — certain  on  the  confession  of  its 
enemies — that  a  pure  and  high  morality  is  to  be 
gathered  only  from  the  pages  of  the  Bible,  what 
an  advantage  is  there  in  the  possession  of  the 
Scriptures,  even  if  death  were  the  termination 
of  human  existence.  Take  away  the  Bible  from 
a  nation,  so  that  there  should  no  longer  be  the 
exhibition  and  inculcation  of  its  precepts,  and 
there  would  be  a  gradual,  yea,  and  a  rapid,  intro- 
duction of  false  principles  and  spurious  theories, 
which  would  pave  the  way  for  a  total  degeneracy 
of  manners.  You  would  quickly  find  that  honesty 
and  integrity  were  not  held  in  their  former  re- 
pute, but  had  given  place  to  fraud  and  extortion  ; 
that  there  was  an  universal  setting  up  of  the  idol 
of  selfishness,  before  which  all  that  is  generous, 
and  disinterested,  and  philanthropic,  would  be 
forced  to  do  homage;  that  there  was  attached 
little  or  none  of  that  sacredness  to  domestic  re- 
lationships which  had  heretofore  been  the  chief 
charm  of  families ;  and  that  there  was  departing 
from  our  institutions  all  that  is  glorious  in  liberty, 
and  from  our  firesides  all  that  gives  them  their 
attractiveness.  Whatever  had  been  introduced 
and  matured  by  the  operations  of  Christianity, 
would,  in  process  of  time,  decay  and  disappear, 


BTBLE    THOUGHTS.  13 

were  those  operations  suspended ;  and  since  we 
can  confidently  trace  to  the  influences  of  true  re- 
ligion, our  advancement  in  all  that  concerns  the 
public  security,  and  the  private  tranquillity  5  wo 
can  with  equal  confidence  affirm  our  speedy  re- 
lapse, if  these  influences  were  suddenly  with- 
drawn. 

3.  Sufficiency  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

We  are  never  afraid  of  subjecting  the  external 
evidences  of  Christianity  to  the  most  sifting  pro- 
cesses which  our  adversaries  can  invent.  We  do 
not  receive  a  religion  without  proof;  and  oifr 
proof  we  will  bring  to  the  best  touch- stones  of 
truth.  Christianity  is  not  the  grave,  but  the  field 
of  vigorous  inquiry.  And  we  see  not,  therefore, 
why  scepticism  should  claim  to  itself  a  mono- 
poly of  intellect.  The  high  road  to  reputation 
for  talent  seems  to  be  boldness  in  denying 
Christianity. 

But  evidences  are  not  to  be  set  aside  by  a  sneer. 
We  will  take  our  stand  as  on  a  mount  thrown  up 
in  the  broad  waste  of  many  generations  5  and  one 
century  after  another  shall  struggle  forth  from 
the  sepulchres  of  the  past ;  and  each,  as  its  mo- 
narchs,  and  its  warriors,  and  its  priests  walk 
dimly  under  review,  shall  lay  down  a  tribute  at 
the  feet  of  Christianity.  We  will  have  the  volume 
of  history  spread  out  before  us,  and  bid  science 
2 


14  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

arrange  her  manifold  developements,  and  seek 
the  bones  of  martyrs  in  the  east  and  in  the  west, 
and  tread  upon  battle  plains  with  an  empire's  dust 
sepulchred  beneath  ;  but  on  whatsoever  we  gaze, 
and  whithersoever  we  turn,  the  evidences  of  our 
religion  shall  look  nobler  and  wax  mightier.  It 
were  the  work  of  a  life  time  to  gain  even  cursory 
acquaintance  with  the  proofs  which  substantiate 
the  claims  of  Christianity.  It  would  beat  down 
the  energies  of  the  most  gifted  spirit  to  require 
it  to  search  out  and  concentrate  whatsoever  at- 
tests the  truth  of  the  Gospel — for  the  mountains 
of  the  earth  have  a  voice,  and  the  cities,  and  the 
valleys,  and  the  tombs ;  and  the  sail  must  be  un- 
furled to  bear  the  inquirer  over  every  ocean,  and 
the  wings  of  the  morning  must  carry  him  to  the 
outskirts  of  infinite  space.  We  will  not  concede 
that  a  more  overwhelming  demonstration  wrould 
be  given  to  the  man  who  should  stand  side  by 
side  with  a  messenger  from  the  invisible  world, 
and  hear  from  celestial  lips  the  spirit-stirring 
news  of  redemption,  than  is  actually  to  be  at- 
tained by  him  who  sits  down  patiently  and  as- 
siduously, and  plies,  with  all  the  diligence  of  an 
unwearied  laborer  in  the  mine  of  information,  at 
accumulating  and  arranging  the  evidences  of 
Christianity.  So  that  we  may  well  think  ourselves 
warranted  in  contending  that  God  has  marvel- 
lously prepared  for  the  faith  of  educated  men. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  15 

Scepticism,  whatever  its  boasts,  walks  to  its  con- 
clusions over  a  fettered  reason  and  a  forgotten 
creation.  And  any  man  who  will  study  carefully, 
and  think  candidly,  shall  rise  from  his  inquiry  a 
believer  in  revelation. 

4.  Past  and  present  Evidences  of  Christianity    * 
compared. 

Men  are  often  inclined  to  compare  the  reli- 
gious advantages  of  the  earlier  and  later  days  of 
Christianity,  and  to  uphold  the  superiority  of  the 
past  to  the  present.  It  is  imagined,  that,  to  have 
been  numbered  amongst  the  living,  when  Jesus 
sojourned  upon  earth;  to  have  been  permitted  to 
behold  the  miracles  which  he  wrought,  and  to 
hear  from  his  own  lips  the  truths  of  redemption  ; 
must  have  been  a  privilege  ampler  in  dimensions 
than  any  which  falls  to  men  of  later  generations. 
And  from  such  imagining  there  will  spring  often 
a  kind  of  excusing,  whether  of  infidelity  or  of 
lukewarmness ;  our  not  believing  at  all,  or  our 
believing  only  languidly,  being  accounted  for  on 
the  principle,  that  the  evidence  afforded  is  far 
less  than  might  have  been  vouchsafed. 

Now  we  believe  this  view  to  be  grounded  alto- 
gether on  mistake.  If  there  be  advantage  on  one 
side  as  contrasted  with  the  other,  we  are  per 
suaded  that  it  lies  with  the  present  generation, 
and  not  with  the  past.    It  is  true  that  the  exhibi- 


16  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

tion  of  miraculous  energies,  which  was  made  in 
the  cities  of  Judea,  gave  what  ought  to  have 
been  overwhelming  attestation  to  the  divinity  of 
the  mission  of  Jesus.  If  Ave  possessed  not  the 
records  of  history  to  assure  us  of  the  contrary, 
we  might  be  disposed  to  conclude,  with  much 
appearance  of  fairness,  that  they  who  beheld 
diseases  scattered,  and  death  mastered  by  a  word, 
must  have  instantly  followed  Him  who  wrought 
out  the  marvels.  Yet  we  may  easily  certify  our- 
selves, that  the  Jew  was  occupied  by  prejudices 
which  must  have  more  than  counterbalanced  his 
peculiar  advantages.  He  had  before  him,  so  to 
speak,  a  sketch  of  his  Messiah,  whose  accuracy 
he  never  thought  of  questioning  ;  and  if  a  claim- 
ant of  the  Messiahship  presented  not  the  features 
which  were  foremost  in  this  sketch,  then,  almost 
as  a  matter  of  course,  his  pretensions  were  re- 
jected with  scorn.  It  is  nothing  to  say  that  an 
cient  prophecy,  more  thoroughly  investigated, 
might  have  taught  the  Jew  the  error  of  expecting, 
on  the  first  advent  of  Messiah,  a  temporal  prince 
and  deliverer.  The  error  was  so  ingrained  into 
his  spirit  that  it  was  easier  for  him  to  refer  mira- 
cles to  the  power  of  the  evil  one,  than  to  suspect 
that  he  harbored  a  false  expectation.  So  that, 
when  we  compare  our  own  circumstances  with 
those  of  the  Jew,  it  behoves  us  to  remember, 
that,  if  we  have  not  his  advantages  in  supernar 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  17 

tural  manifestations,  neither  have  we  his  disad- 
vantages in  national  prepossessions.  We  are  not 
to  argue  the  effect  produced  upon  him,  from  that 
which  might  now  be  produced  upon  us  by  the 
working  of  miracles.  In  his  case  every  feeling 
which  results  from  early  association,  or  from  the 
business  of  education,  was  enlisted  against  Chris- 
tianity ;  whereas,  it  may  almost  be  affirmed,  that, 
in  our  case,  every  such  feeling  is  on  the  side  of 
Christianity.  If,  therefore,  we  allowed  that  the 
testimony,  which  we  possess  to  the  truth  of  our 
religion,  wears  not  outwardly  the  same  mighti- 
ness as  that  afforded  in  the  days  of  the  Saviour, 
we  should  still  contend  that  the  predisposing  cir- 
cumstances in  our  own  case  far  more  than  com- 
pensate the  sensible  witness  in  that  of  the  Jew. 
We  may  yet  further  observe,  that  not  only  are 
our  disadvantages  less,  but,  on  a  stricter  exami- 
nation, our  advantages  will  appear  greater.  We 
may  think  there  would  have  been  a  vast  advan- 
tage in  seeing  Jesus  work  miracles  ;  but,  after 
all,  we  could  only  have  believed  that  he  actually 
worked  them.  And  if  we  can  once  certify  our- 
selves of  this  fact,  we  occupy,  in  the  strictest 
sense,  the  same  position  as  though  we  had  been 
spectators  of  the  wonder.  It  would  be  altogether 
childish  to  maintain,  that  I  may  not  be  just  as 
certain  of  a  thing  which  I  have  not  seen,  as  of 
another  which  I  have  seen.  Who  is,  in  any  de- 
2* 


18  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

gree,  less  confident  that  there  was  once  such  a 
king  as  Henry  the  Eighth  on  the  throne  of  these 
realms,  than  that  there  is  now  such  a  king  as 
William  the  Fourth  ]  Or  is  there  one  of  us  who 
thinks  that  he  would  have  felt  more  sure  of  there 
having  been  such  a  king  as  Henry  the  Eighth, 
had  he  lived  in  the  times  of  that  monarch,  in 
place  of  the  present  1  We  hold  then  the  supposi- 
tion to  be  indefensible,  that  the  spectator  of  a  mi- 
racle has  necessarily  an  advantage  over  those 
who  only  hear  of  that  miracle.  Let  there  be  clear 
and  unequivocal  testimony  to  the  fact  of  the  mi- 
racle having  been  wrought,  and  the  spectator  and 
the  hearer  stand  well  nigh  on  a  par.  That  there 
should  be  belief  in  the  fact,  is  the  highest  result 
which  can,  in  either  case,  be  produced.  But,  as- 
suredly, this  result  may  as  well  be  effected  by  the 
power  of  authenticated  witness,  as  by  the  ma- 
chinery of  our  senses.  And,  without  question, 
the  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Christianity  is  of  so 
growing  a  character,  and  each  age,  as  it  rolls 
away,  pays  in  so  large  a  contribution  to  the  evi- 
dences of  faith,  that  it  were  easy  to  prove  that 
the  men  of  the  present  generation  gain,  rather 
than  lose,  by  distance  from  the  first  erection  of 
the  cross.  It  is  saying  but  little  to  affirm  that  we 
have  as  good  grounds  of  persuasion  that  Jesus 
came  from  God,  as  we  should  have  had  if  per- 
mitted to  behold  the  mighty   workings  of   his 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  19 

power.  We  are  bold  to  say  that  we  have  even 
better  grounds.  The  testimony  of  our  senses, 
however  convincing  for  the  moment,  is  of  so 
fleeting  and  unsubstantial  a  character,  that,  a  year 
or  two  after  we  had  seen  a  miracle,  we  might  be 
brought  to  question  whether  there  had  not  been 
jugglery  in  the  worker,  or  credulity  in  ourselves. 
If  we  found  a  nation  up  in  arms,  maintaining  that 
there  might  have  been  magic  or  trickery,  but  that 
there  had  not  been  supernatural  power ;  we  might, 
perchance,  be  easily  borne  down  by  the  outcry,  if 
the  remembered  witness  of  our  eye-sight  were 
all  to  which  appeal  could  be  made.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  begin  to  suspect  ourselves  in  the  wrong, 
when  we  find  no  one  willing  to  allow  us  in  the 
right.  And  we  therefore  maintain,  that,  living  as 
we  do  in  a  day  when  generation  after  generation 
has  sat  in  assize  on  Christianity,  and  registered  a 
verdict  that  it  has  God  for  its  author,  we  possess 
the  very  largest  advantages  over  those  who  saw 
with  their  own  eyes  what  Jesus  did,  and  heard 
with  their  own  ears  what  Jesus  said. 

5.  Self 'evidencing  power  of  Scripture. 

We  desire  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  young  on 
what  is  called  the  self-evidencing  power  of  Scrip- 
ture. With  all  our  desire  that  they  should  be 
thoroughly  masters  of  the  external  evidences  of 


20  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Christianity,  we  are  unspeakably  more  anxious 
that  they  should  labor  to  possess  themselves  of 
the  internal ;  for,  in  searching  after  these,  they 
must  necessarily  study  the  Bible  itself.  If  they 
will  learn  to  view  the  contents  of  Scripture  as 
themselves  its  credentials,  we  shall  engage  them 
in  the  most  hopeful  of  all  studies,  the  study  of 
God's  word  as  addressing  itself  to  the  heart,  and 
not  merely  to  the  head.  For  there  may  be  an  in- 
tellectual theology ;  religion  may  be  reduced  into 
a  science ;  and  the  writers  on  the  evidences,  and 
the  commentators  on  the  text  of  the  Bible,  may 
just  do  for  Christianity  what  the  laborious  and 
the  learned  have  done  for  various  branches  of  na- 
tural philosophy  ;  make  truths  bright  rather  than 
sharp,  clear  to  the  understanding,  but  without 
hold  on  the  affections.  And  this  is  not  the  Chris- 
tianity which  we  wish  to  find,  the  Christianity  of 
the  man  who  can  defeat  a  sceptic,  and  then  lose 
his  soul.  We  would  have  him  well-read — too 
well-read  he  cannot  be — in  what  has  been  written 
in  defence  of  the  faith ;  but,  above  all,  we  would 
fasten  him  to  the  prayerful  study  of  the  sacred 
volume  itself;  this  will  lead  him  to  the  hearing 
God's  voice  in  the  Bible,  and,  until  that  is  heard, 
the  best  champion  of  truth  may  be  far  from  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  21 

6.  Testimony  of  Experience  to  the  truth  of 
Scripture. 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  in  reference  to  the 
way  in  which  men  reach  their  persuasion  tliat 
the  Bible  is  God's  word,  that  they,  for  the  most 
part,  receive  the  Bible  as  inspired,  long  before 
they  can  prove  any  thing  in  regard  of  its  inspira- 
tion. We  put  the  Bible  into  the  hands  of  our 
children,  as  the  word  of  the  living  God,  and  there- 
fore demanding  a  reverence  which  can  be  claim- 
ed by  no  other  volume  in  the  whole  circle  of  au- 
thorship. And  our  children  grow  up  with  what 
might  almost  be  called  an  innate  persuasion  of  the 
inspiration  of  Scripture;  they  are  all  but  born 
with  the  belief ;  and  they  carry  it  with  them  to 
riper  years,  rather  as  a  received  axiom,  than  as 
a  demonstrated  verity.  It  is  almost  exclusively 
on  hearsay,  if  we  may  use  the  word,  that  the 
Bible  is  taken  as  divine,  and  the  Apocrypha 
passed  by  as  human;  so  that  numbers,  who 
are  perhaps  strenuous  for  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  do  virtually,  in  the  most  important 
matter,  receive  and  reject  on  the  sole  authority 
of  the  church. 

But  then,  though  it  may  thus  be  on  hearsay 
that  they  first  receive  the  Bible  as  inspired,  it  is 
not  on  hearsay  that  they  continue  to  receive  it 
We  speak  now  of  those  who  have  searched  the 


22  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Scriptures  for  everlasting  life,  and  who  feel  that 
they  have  found  therein  a  revelation  of  the  alone 
mode  of  forgiveness.  We  speak  of  those  in  whom 
the  word  has  ■*  wrought  effectually ;"  and  we  con- 
fidently affirm  of  them,  that,  though  at  one  time 
they  believed  in  the  inspiration  of  the  canonical 
Scriptures,  because  their  parents  taught  it,  or 
their  ministers  maintained  it,  yet  now  are  they 
in  possession  of  a  personal,  experimental,  evi- 
dence, which  is  thoroughly  conclusive  on  this 
fundamental  point. 

7.   Testimony  of  uneducated  believer  to  the  truth 
of  Scripture. 

We  will  give  you  what  we  reckon  the  history 
of  the  uneducated  believer,  so  far  as  his  ac- 
quaintance with  revelation  is  concerned.  He  may 
perhaps  have  been  neglected  in  boyhood,  so  that 
he  has  grown  up  in  ignorance  ;  but  he  is  visited 
by  the  minister  of  God  in  some  seasons  of  afflic- 
tion, when  the  ruggedness  of  his  nature  is  some- 
what worn  down  by  sorrow.  The  minister  presses 
upon  him  the  study  of  the  Bible,  as  of  the  word 
of  his  Creator,  assuring  him  that  he  will  therein 
find  God's  will,  as  revealed  by  his  Spirit.  The 
cottager  has  undoubtedly  heard  of  the  Bible  be 
fore  ;  and  it  is  no  news  to  him,  that  it  passes  as 
a  more  than  human  book.    But  he  has  never  yet 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  23 

given  heed  to  what  he  heard  $  the  book  has  been 
unopened,  notwithstanding  the  high  claims  which 
it  was  known  to  advance.  But  now,  softened  by 
the  minister's  kindness,  and  moved  by  his  state- 
ments, he  sets  himself  diligently  to  the  perusal 
of  Scripture,  and  statedly  attends  its  Sabbath  ex- 
positions. And  thus,  though  he  is  acting  only  on 
what  he  has  heard,  he  brings  himself  under  the 
self-evidencing  power  of  Scripture,  that  power 
by  which  the  contents  of  the  Bible  serve  as  its 
credentials.  And  this  self-evidencing  power  is 
wonderfully  great.  The  more  than  human  know- 
ledge which  Scripture  displays  in  regard  of  the 
most  secret  workings  of  the  heart ;  the  marvel- 
lous and  unerring  precision  with  which  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Gospel  adapt  themselves  to  the 
known  wants  and  disabilities  of  our  nature ;  the 
constancy  with  which  the  promises  and  direc- 
tions of  holy  writ,  if  put  to  the  proof,  are  made 
good  in  one's  own  case — these,  and  the  like  evi- 
dences of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Bible,  press 
themselves  quickly  on  the  most  illiterate  student, 
when  he  searches  it  in  humility,  hoping  to  find, 
as  he  has  been  told  that  he  shall,  a  message  from 
God  which  will  guide  him  towards  heaven.  He 
began  on  the  testimony  of  another ;  but,  after  a 
while,  he  goes  forward  on  his  own  testimony 
And  though  he  has  not  been  sitting  in  judgment 
on  the  credentials  of  Christianity,  yet  has  he  pos- 


24  EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

sessed  himself  of  its  contents ;  and  on  these  he 
has  found  so  much  of  the  impress,  and  from  them 
there  has  issued  so  much  of  the  voice  of  Deity, 
that  he  is  as  certified  in  his  own  mind,  and  on 
grounds  as  satisfactory,  of  the  inspiration  of 
Scripture,  as  any  laborious  and  scientific  inquireT 
who  has  rifled  the  riches  of  centuries,  and  brought 
them  all.  to  do  homage  before  our  holy  religion 
God  has  no  more  given  to  the  learned  the  mono  > 
poly  of  evidence,  than  to  the  wealthy  the  mono- 
poly of  benevolence.  The  poor  man  can  exercise 
benevolence,  for  the  widow's  two  mites  may  out- 
weigh the  noble's  coffers :  and  the  poor  man  may 
have  an  evidence  that  God  is  in  the  Bible,  for  it 
may  speak  to  his  heart  as  no  human  book  can. 

8.  The  poor  marCs  evidence  of  Chj^isiianity. 

There  can  be  nothing  more  unjust  than  the 
conclusion,  that  the  poor  man  has  no  evidence 
within  reach,  because  he  has  not  the  external. 
We  will  not  allow  that  God  has  failed,  in  this 
respect,  to  prepare  for  the  poor.  We  will  go  into 
the  cottage  of  the  poor  disciple  of  Christ,  and  we 
will  say  to  him,  "Why  do  you  believe  upon 
Jesus  1  You  know  little  or  nothing  about  the  wit- 
ness of  antiquity.  You  know  little  or  nothing 
about  the  completion  of  prophecy.  You  can 
give  me  no  logical,  no  grammatical,  no  historical 
reasons  for  concluding  the  Bible  to  be,  what  it 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS,  25 

professes  itself,  a  revelation,  made  in  early  times, 
of  the  will  of  the  Almighty.  Why  then  do  you 
believe  upon  Jesus  1  What  grounds  have  you  for 
faith,  what  basis  of  conviction  1" 

Now  if  the  poor  man  lay  bare  his  experience, 
he  will,  probably,  show  how  God  hath  prepared 
for  him,  by  giving  such  a  reply  as  the  following  : 
"I  lived  long  unconcerned  about  the.  soul.  I 
thought  only  on  the  pleasures  of  to-day :  I  cared 
nothing  for  the  worm  which  might  gnaw  me  to- 
morrow. I  was  brought  however,  by  sickness, 
or  by  disappointment,  or  by  the  death  of  the  one 
I  best  loved,  or  by  a  startling  sermon,  to  fear  that 
all  was  not  right  between  me  and  God.  I  grew 
more  and  more  anxious.  Terrors  haunted  me  by 
day,  and  sleep  went  from  my  pillow  by  night. 
At  length  I  was  bidden  to  look  unto  Jesus  as 
'  delivered  for  my  offences,  and  raised  again  for 
my  justification.'  Instantly  I  felt  him  to  be  ex- 
actly the  Saviour  that  I  needed.  Every  want 
found  in  him  an  immediate  supply ;  every  fear  a 
cordial ;  every  wound  a  balm.  And  ever  since, 
the  more  I  have  read  of  the  Bible,  the  more 
have  I  found  that  it  must  have  been  written  on 
purpose  for  myself.  It  seems  to  know  all  my 
cares,  all  my  temptations  5  and  it  speaks  so  beau- 
tifully a  word  in  season,  that  he  who  wrote  it 
must,  I  think,  have  had  me  in  his  eye.  Why  do 
I  believe  on  Jesus  ]  Oh,  I  feelhim  to  be  a  divine 
3 


26  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Saviour — that  is  my  proof.  Why  do  I  believe  the 
Bible  1  I  have  found  it  to  be  God's  word — there 
is  my  witness." 

We  think,  assuredly,  that  if  you  take  the  expe- 
rience of  the  generality  of  christians,  you  will 
iind  that  they  do  not  believe  without  proof.  We 
again  say  that  we  cannot  assent  to  the  proposi- 
tion, that  the  Christianity  of  our  villages  and 
hamlets  takes  for  granted  the  truth  of  the  Bible, 
and  has  no  reason  to  give  when  that  truth  is 
called  in  question.  The  peasant  who,  when  the 
hard  toil  of  the  day  is  concluded,  will  sit  by  his 
fireside,  and  read  the  Bible  with  all  the  eagerness, 
and  all  the  confidence,  of  one  who  receives  it,  as 
a  message  from  God,  has  some  better  ground 
than  common  report,  or  the  tradition  of  his  fore- 
fathers, on  which  to  rest  his  persuasion  of  the 
divinity  of  the  volume.  The  book  speaks  to  him 
with  a  force  which  he  feels  never  could  belong  to 
a  mere  human  composition.  There  is  drawn  such 
a  picture  of  his  own  heart — a  picture  presenting 
many  features  which  he  would  not  have  disco- 
vered, had  they  not  been  thus  outlined,  but  which 
he  recognises  as  most  accurate,  the  instant  they 
are  exhibited — -that  he  can  be  sure  that  the 
painter  is  none  other  but  he  who  alone  searches 
the  heart.  The  proposed  deliverance  agrees  so 
wonderfully,  and  so  minutely,  with  his  wants ;  it 
manifests-  such  unbounded  and  equal  concern  for 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  27 

the  honor  of  God,  and  the  well-being  of  man  ;  it 
provides,  with  so  consummate  a  skill,  that,  whilst 
the  human  race  is  redeemed,  the  divine  attributes 
shall  be  glorified ;  that  it  were  like  telling  him 
that  a  creature  spread  out  the  firmament,  and  in- 
laid it  with  worlds,  to  tell  him  that  the  proffered 
salvation  is  the  device  of  impostors,  or  the  fig- 
ment of  enthusiasts. 

Yea,  and  it  is  a  growing  and  strengthening  evi- 
dence which  God,  of  his  goodness,  has  thus  pre- 
pared for  the  poor.  Whensoever  they  obey  a 
direction  of  Scripture,  and  find  the  accompanying 
promise  fulfilled,  this  is  a  new  proof  that  the  di- 
rection and  the  promise  are  from  God.  The  book 
tells  them  that  blessings  are  to  be  sought  and  ob- 
tained through  the  name  of  Christ.  They  ask  and 
they  receive.  What  is  this  but  a  witness  that 
the  book  is  divine  1  Would  God  give  his  sanc- 
tion to  a  lie  1  The  book  assures  them  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  will  gradually  sanctify  those  who  be- 
lieve upon  Jesus.  They  find  the  sanctification 
following  on  the  belief ;  and  does  not  this  attest 
the  authority  of  the  volume  1  The  book  declares 
that  "all  things  work  together  for  good"  to  the 
disciples  of  Jesus.  They  find  that  prosperity  and 
adversity,  as  each  brings  its  trials,  so  each  its  les- 
sons and  supports  ;  and  whilst  God  thus  conti- 
nually verifies  a  declaration,  can  they  doubt  that 
he  made  it  1  And  thus,  day  by  day,  the  self-evi- 


28  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

dencing  power  of  Scripture  comes  into  fuller  ope- 
ration, and  experience  multiplies  and  strengthens 
the  internal  testimony.  The  peasant  will  discover 
more  and  more  that  the  Bible  and  the  conscience 
so  fit  into  each  other,  that  the  artificer  who  made 
one  must  have  equally  fashioned  both.  His  life 
will  be  an  on-going  proof  that  Scripture  is  truth  ; 
for  his  days  and  hours  are  its  chapters  and  verses 
realized  to  the  letter.  And  others  may  admire 
the  shield  which  the  industry  and  ingenuity  of 
learned  men  have  thrown  over  Christianity.  They 
may  speak  of  the  solid  rampart  cast  up  by  the 
labor  of  ages  ;  and  pronounce  the  faith  unassail- 
able, because  history,  and  philosophy,  and  sci- 
ence, have  all  combined  to  gird  round  it  the  iron, 
and  the  rock,  of  a  ponderous  and  colossal  demon- 
stration. We,  for  our  part,  glory  most  in  the 
fact,  that  Scripture  so  commends  itself  to  the 
conscience,  and  experience  so  bears  out  the 
Bible,  that  the  Gospel  can  go  the  round  of  the 
world,  and  carry  with  it,  in  all  its  travel,  its  own 
mighty  credentials. 

9.  Testimony  of  a  deist  to  the  Bible. 

We  always  recur  with  great  delight  to  the  tes- 
timony of  a  deist,  who  after  publicly  laboring  to 
disprove  Christianity,  and  to  bring  Scripture  into 
contempt  as  a  forgery,  was  found  instructing  his 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  29 

child  from  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament. 
When  taxed  with  the  flagrant  inconsistency,  his 
only  reply  was,  that  it  was  necessary  to  teach  the 
child  morality,  and  that  nowhere  was  there,  to  be 
found  such  morality  as  in  the  Bible.  We  thank 
the  deist  for  the  confession.  Whatever  our 
scorn  of  a  man  who  could  be  guilty  of  so  foul  a 
dishonesty,  seeking  to  sweep  from  the  earth  a 
volume  to  which,  all  the  while,  himself  recurred 
for  the  principles  of  education,  we  thank  him  for 
his  testimony,  that  the  morality  of  Scripture  is  a 
morality  not  elsewhere  to  be  found ;  so  that  if 
there  were  no  Bible,  there  would  be  compara- 
tively no  source  of  instruction  in  duties  and 
virtues,  whose  neglect  and  decline  would  dislo- 
cate the  happiness  of  human  society.  The  deist 
was  right.  Deny  or  disprove  the  divine  origin  of 
Scripture,  and  nevertheless  you  must  keep  the 
volume  as  a  kind  of  text-book  of  morality,  if  in- 
deed you  would  not  wish  the  banishment  from 
our  homes  of  all  that  is  lovely  and  sacred,  and 
the  breaking  up,  through  the  lawlessness  of  un- 
governed  passions,  of  the  quiet  and  the  beauty 
which  are  yet  round  our  families. 

10.  The  Bible  emphatically  the  poor  marl's  book. 

If  an  individual  be  possessed  of  commanding 
genius,  gifted  with  powers  which  far  remove  him 
from  the  mass  of  his  fellows,  he  will  find  in  tho 
3* 


30  EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

pages  of  Scripture  beauties,  and  difficulties,  and 
secrets,  and  wonders,  which  a  long  life-time  of 
study  shall  leave  unexhausted.  But  the  man  of 
no  pretensions  to  talent,  and  of  no  opportunities 
for  research,  may  turn  to  the  Bible  in  quest  of 
comfort  and  direction  ;  and  there  he  will  find 
traced  as  with  a  sun-beam,  so  that  none  but  the 
wilfully  blind  can  overlook  the  record,  guidance 
for  the  lost,  and  consolation  for  the  downcast. 
We  say  that  it  is  in  this  preparation  for  the  poor 
that  the  word  of  God  is  most  surprising.  View 
the  matter  how  you  will,  the  Bible  is  as  much 
the  unlearned  man's  book  as  it  is  the  learned,  as 
much  the  poor  man's  as  it  is  the  rich.  It  is  so 
composed  as  to  suit  all  ages  and  all  classes. 
And  whilst  the  man  of  learning  and  capacity  is 
poring  upon  the  volume  in  the  retirement  of  his 
closet,  and  employing  all  the  stores  of  a  varied 
literature  in  illustrating  its  obscurities  and  solv- 
ing its  difficulties,  the  laborer  may  be  sitting  at 
his  cottage-door,  with  his  boys  and  his  girls 
drawn  round  him,  explaining  to  them,  from  the 
simply-written  pages,  how  great  is  the  Almighty, 
and  how  precious  is  Jesus.  Nay,  we  shall  not 
overstep  the  boundaries  of  truth  if  we  carry 
these  statements  yet  a  little  further.  We  hold 
that  the  Bible  is  even  more  the  poor  man's  book 
than  the  rich  man's.  There  is  a*  vast  deal  of  the 
Bible  which   appears  written  with   the  express 


EIBLE  THOUGHTS.  31 

design  of  verifying-  the  assertion,  that  God,  of 
his  goodness,  has  "  prepared  for  the  poor." 
There  are  many  of  the  promises  which  seem  to 
demand  poverty  as  the  element  wherein  alone 
their  full  lustre  can  radiate.  The  prejudices, 
moreover,  of  the  poor  man  against  the  truths 
which  the  volume  opens  up,  are  likely  to  be  less 
strong,  and  inveterate,  than  those  of  the  rich 
man.  He  seems  to  have,  naturally,  a  kind  of 
companionship  with  a  suffering  Redeemer,  who 
had  not  *  where  to  lay  his  head."  He  can  have 
no  repugnance,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  sort  of 
instinctive  attachment,  to  apostles  who,  like 
himself,  wrought  with  their  own  hands  for  the 
supply  of  daily  necessities.  He  can  feel  himself, 
if  we  may  use  such  expression,  at  home  in  the 
scenery,  and  amongst  the  leading  characters,  of 
the  New  Testament.  Whereas,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  scientific  man,  and  the  man  of  educa- 
tion, and  of  influence,  and  of  high  bearing  in  so- 
ciety, will  have  prepossessions,  and  habits  of 
thinking,  with  which  the  announcements  of  the 
Gospel  will  unavoidably  jar.  He  has,  as  it  were, 
to  be  brought  down  to  the  level  of  the  poor  man 
before  he  can  pass  under  the  gate-way  which 
stands  at  the  outset  of  the  path  of  salvation.  He 
has  to  begin  by  learning  the  comparative  worth- 
lessness  of  many  distinctions,  which,  never 
having  been  placed  within  the  poor  man's  reach, 


32  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

stand  not  as  obstacles  to  his  heavenward  pro- 
gress. And  if  there  be  correctness  in  this  repre- 
sentation, it  is  quite  evident  that  if  the  Gospel 
be,  for  the  first  time,  put  into  the  hands,  or  pro- 
claimed in  the  hearing,  of  a  man  of  rank  and  of 
a  mean  man,  the  likelihood  is  far  greater  that 
the  mean  man  will  lay  hold,  effectively  and  sa- 
vingly, on  the  truth,  than  that  the  man  of  rank 
will  thus  grasp  it :  and  our  conclusion,  therefore, 
comes  out  strong  and  irresistible,  that,  if  thero 
be  advantage  on  either  side,  the  Bible  is  even 
more  nicely  adapted  to  the  poor  than  to  the  rich. 

11.  Language  of  Scripture. 

It  were  easy  to  show  that  there  is  no  human 
composition  presenting,  in  any  thing  of  the  same 
degree,  the  majesty  of  oratory  and  the  loveliness 
of  poetry.  So  that  if  the  debate  were  simply  on 
the  best  means  of  improving  the  taste  of  an  in- 
dividual— others  might  commend  to  his  atten- 
tion the  classic  page,  or  bring  forward  the  stand- 
ard works  of  a  nation's  literature  ;  but  we,  for  our 
part,  would  chain  him  down  to  the  study  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  and  we  would  tell  him,  that,  if  he  would 
earn  what  is  noble  verse,  he  must  hearken  to 
Isaiah  sweeping  the  chords  to  Jerusalem's  glory  ; 
and  if  he  \vould  know  what  is  powerful  elo- 
quence, he  must  stand  by  St.  Paul  pleading  in 
bonds  at  Agrippa's  tribunal. 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  33 

12.  Apocryphal  Writings, 

There  is  to  our  mind  something  inexpressibly 
grand  and  beautiful  in  the  thought,  that  God 
dwells,  as  it  were,  in  the  syllables  which  he  has 
indited  for  the  instruction  of  humankind,  so  that 
he  may  be  found  there  when  diligently  sought, 
though  he  do  not  thus  inhabit  any  other  writing. 
He  breathed  himself  into  the  compositions  of 
prophets,  and  apostles,  and  evangelists ;  and  there, 
as  in  the  mystic  recesses  of  an  everlasting  sanc- 
tuary, he  still  resides,  ready  to  disclose  himself 
to  the  humble,  and  to  be  evoked  by  the  prayerful. 
But  in  regard  of  every  other  book,  however 
fraught  it  may  be  with  the  maxims  of  piety,  how- 
ever pregnant  with  momentous  truths,  there  is 
nothing  of  this  shrining  himself  of  Deity  in  the 
depths  of  its  meaning.  Men  may  be  instructed 
by  its  pages,  and  draw  from  them  hope  and  con- 
solation. But  never  will  they  find  there  the 
burning  Shekinah,  which  proclaims  the  actual 
presence  of  God ;  never  hear  a  voice,  as  from 
the  solitudes  of  an  oracle,  pronouncing  the  words 
of  immortality. 

And  we  should  never  fear  the  bringing  any 
canonical  book,  or  any  apocryphal,  to  the  test 
thus  supposed.  Let  a  man  take  a  canonical  book, 
and  let  him  take  an  apocryphal ;  and  let  him  de- 
termine to  study  both  on  the  supposition  that 
both  are  divine.    And  if  he  be  a  sincere  inquirer 


34  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

after  truth,  one  really  anxious  to  ascertain,  in 
order  that  he  may  perform,  the  whole  will  of 
God,  we  know  not  why  he  should  not  experience 
the  accomplishment  of  Christ's  words,  M  If  any 
man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doc- 
trine whether  it  be  of  God,"  and  thus  reach  a 
sound  decision  as  to  which  book  is  inspired,  and 
which  not.  As  he  studies  the  inspired  book, 
with  humility  and  prayer,  he  will  find  its  state- 
ments brought  home  to  his  conscience  and  heart, 
with  that  extraordinary  force  which  is  never  at- 
tached to  a  human  composition.  He  may  not  bo 
able  to  construct  a  clear  argument  for  the  divine 
origin  of  the  book ;  yet  will  the  correspondence 
between  what  the  book  states,  and  what  he  expe- 
riences, and  the  constancy  with  which  the  fulfill- 
ment of  its  promises  follows  on  submission  to  its 
precepts,  combine  into  an  evidence,  thoroughly 
satisfactory  to  himself,  that  the  pages  which  he 
reads  had  God  for  their  author.  But  as  he  stu- 
dies the  non-inspired  book,  he  will  necessarily 
miss  these  tokens  and  impresses  of  Deity.  There 
will  be  none  of  those  mysterious  soundings  of 
the  voice  of  the  ever-living  God,  which  he  has 
learnt  to  expect,  and  which  he  has  always  heard, 
wheresoever  the  writers  have  indeed  been  in- 
spired. His  own  diligence  may  be  the  same, 
his  faith,  his  prayerfulness :  but  it  is  impossible 
there  should  be  those  manifestations  of  superhu- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


35 


man  wisdom,  those  invariable  sequences  of  ful- 
filled promises  on  obeyed  precepts,  which,  in  the 
other  case,  attested,  at  each  step  of  his  progress, 
that  the  document  in  his  hands  was  a  revelation 
from  above. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  the  argument,  which  he 
can  thus  obtain,  must  be  vague  and  inconclusive, 
a  thing  of  imagination  rather  than  of  reason,  and 
therefore,  in  the  largest  sense,  liable  to  error.  But 
we  rejoice,  on  the  contrary,  in  believing  in  the 
thorough  sufficiency  of  the  poor  man's  argument 
for  the  inspiration  of  Scripture.  It  is  an  argu- 
ment to  his  own  conscience,  an  argument  to  his 
own  heart.  It  is  the  argument  drawn  from  the 
experienced  fact,  that  the  Bible  and  the  soul, 
with  her  multiplied  feelings  and  powers,  fit  into 
each  other,  like  two  parts  of  a  complicated  ma- 
chine, proving,  in  their  combination,  that  each 
was  separately  the  work  of  the  same  divine  artist. 
And  you  may  think  that  the  poor  man  may  be 
mistaken  :  but  he  feels  that  he  cannot  be  mista- 
ken. The  testimony  is  like  a  testimony  to  his 
senses ;  if  he  cannot  transfer  it  to  another,  it  is 
incontestable  to  himself,  and  therefore  gives  as 
much  fixedness  to  the  theology  of  the  cottage  as 
ever  belonged  to  the  theology  of  the  academy. 

And  if  he  can  thus  prove,  from  his  own  expe- 
rience, the  divine  origin  of  the  inspired  book,  he 
may  of  course  equally  prove,  from  his  own  expe- 


36  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

rience,  the  human  origin  of  the  non-inspired. 
The  absence  of  certain  tokens  in  the  one  case, 
will  be  as  conclusive  to  him  as  their  presence  in 
the  other.  Even  though  the  style  and  sentiment 
may  be  similar  to  those  to  which  he  has  been 
used  in  holy  writ,  he  will  not  experience  the 
same  elevation  of  soul  as  when  he  trusts  himself 
to  the  soarings  of  Isaiah,  the  same  sweepings  of 
the  chords  of  the  heart  as  when  he  joins  in  the 
hymns  of  David,  nor  the  same  echo  of  the  con- 
science as  when  he  listens  to  the  remonstrances 
of  St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul.  And  what  then  is  to 
prevent  man's  being  his  own  witness  to  the  non- 
inspiration  of  the  apocryphal,  as  well  as  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  canonical  scriptures  % 

13.  Reason. 

Take  heed  that  ye  do  not  so  admire  and  extol 
reason,  as  to  think  lightly  of  revelation.  Ye  live 
in  days  when  mind  is  on  the  stretch,  and  in  scenes 
where  there  is  every  thing  to  call  it  out.  And  we 
do  not  wish  to  make  you  less  acute,  less  inquir- 
ing, less  intelligent,  than  the  warmest  admirers 
of  reason  can  desire  you  to  become.  We  only 
wish  you  to  remember  that  arrogance  is  not  great- 
ness, and  that  conceit  is  the  index,  not  of  strength, 
but  of  weakness.  To  exalt  reason  beyond  its  due 
place,  is  to  debase  it ;  to  set  the  human  in  rivalry 
with  the  divine,  is  to  make  it  contemptible.    Let 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  37 

reason  count  the  stars,  weigh  the  mountains,  fa- 
thom the  depths — the  employment  becomes  her, 
and  the  success  is  glorious.  But  when  the  ques- 
tion is,  "  How  shall  man  be  just  with  God  1"  rea- 
son must  be  silent,  revelation  must  speak ;  and 
he  who  will  not  hear  it,  assimilates  himself  to  the 
first  deist,  Cain  ;  he  may  not  kill  a  brother,  he 
certainly  destroys  himself. 

14.  Credulity. 

We  scarcely  know  a  finer  vantage-ground  on 
which  the  champion  of  truth  can  plant  himself, 
than  that  of  the  greater  credulity  which  must  be 
shown  in  the  rejection,  than  in  the  reception  of 
Christianity.  We  mean  to  assert,  in  spite  of  the 
tauntings  of  those  most  thorough  of  all  bonds- 
men, free-thinkers  ;  that  the  faith  required  from 
deniers  of  revelation  is  far  larger  than  that  de- 
manded from  its  advocates.  He  who  thinks  that 
the  setting  up  of  Christianity  may  satisfactorily 
be  accounted  for  on  the  supposition  of  its  false- 
hood, taxes  credulity  a  vast  deal  more  than  he 
who  believes  all  the  prodigies  and  all  the  mira- 
cles recorded  in  Scripture.  The  most  marvellous 
of  all  prodigies,  and  the  most  surpassing  of  all  mi- 
racles, would  be  the  progress  of  the  christian  re- 
ligion, supposing  k  untrue.  And,  assuredly,  he 
who  has  wrought  himself  into  the  belief  that 
such  a  wonder  has  been  exhibited,  can  have  no 
4 


38  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

right  to  boast  himself  shrewder  and  more  cau- 
tious than  he  who  holds,  that,  at  human  bidding, 
the  sun  stood  still,  or  that  tempests  were  hushed, 
and  graves  rifled,  at  the  command  of  one  "  found 
in  fashion  "  as  ourselves.  The  fact  that  Christi- 
anity strode  onward  with  a  resistless  march, 
making  triumphant  way  against  the  banded  pow- 
er, and  learning,  and  prejudices  of  the  world ; 
this  fact,  we  say,  requires  to  be  accounted  for ; 
and,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  room  for  question- 
ing its  accuracy,  we  ask,  in  all  justice,  to  be  fur- 
nished with  its  explanation.  We  turn,  naturally, 
from  the  result  to  the  engines  by  which,  to  all 
human  appearance,  the  result  was  brought  round  ; 
from  the  system  preached,  to  the  preachers  them- 
selves. Were  those  who  first  propounded  Chris- 
tianity, men  who,  from  station  in  society,  and  in- 
fluence over  their  fellows,  were  likely  to  succeed 
in  palming  falsehood  on  the  world  1  Were  they 
possessed  of  such  machinery  of  intelligence,  and 
wealth,  and  might,  and  science,  that — every  al- 
lowance being  made  for  human  credulity  and 
human  infatuation — there  would  appear  the  very 
lowest  probability  that,  having  forged  a  lie,  they 
could  have  caused  it  speedily  to  be  venerated  as 
truth,  and  carried  along  the  earth's  diameter 
amid  the  worshippings  of  thousands  of  the  earth's 
population!  No  candid  mind  can  observe  the 
speed  with  which  Christianity  overran  the  civil* 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  39 

ized  world,  compelling  the  homage  of  kings,  and 
casting  down  the  altars  of  long-cherished  super- 
stitions ;  and  then  compare  the  means  with  the 
effect — the  apostles,  men  of  low  birth,  and  poor 
education,  backed  by  no  authority,  and  possess- 
ed of  none  of  those  high-wrought  endowments 
which  mark  out  the  achievers  of  difficult  enter- 
prise— we  are  persuaded,  we  say,  that  no  candid 
mind  can  set  what  was  done  side  by  side  with  the 
apparatus  through  which  it  was  effected,  and  not 
confess,  that,  of  all  incredible  things,  the  most 
incredible  would  be,  that  a  few  fishermen  of  Ga- 
lilee vanquished  the  world,  upheaving  its  idola- 
tries, and  mastering  its  prejudices,  and  yet  that 
their  only  weapon  was  a  lie,  their  only  mechan- 
ism jugglery  and  deceit. 

And  this  it  is  which  the  sceptic  believes. 
Yea,  on  his  belief  of  this  he  grounds  claims  to  a 
sounder,  and  shrewder,  and  less  fettered  under- 
standing, than  belongs  to  the  mass  of  his  fellows. 
He  deems  it  the  mark  of  a  weak  and  ill-dis- 
ciplined intellect  to  admit  the  truth  of  Christ's 
raising  the  dead ;  but  appeals,  in  proof  of  a 
stanch  and  well-informed  mind,  to  his  belief 
that  this  whole  planet  was  convulsed  by  the 
blow  of  an  infant.  He  scorns  the  narrow-mind 
edness  of  submission  to  what  he  calls  priestcraft  ,• 
but  counts  himself  large-minded,  because  he  ad- 
mits that  a  priestcraft,  only  worthy  his  contempt, 


46  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ground  into  powder  every  system  which  he  thinks 
worthy  his  admiration.  He  laughs  at  the  credu- 
lity  of  supposing  that  God  had  to  do  with  the  in- 
stitution of  Christianity ;  and  then  applauds  the 
sobriety  of  referring  to  chance  what  bears  all  the 
marks  of  design — proving  himself  rational  by 
holding  that  causes  are  not  necessary  to  effects. 
We  give  it  you  as  a  truth,  susceptible  of  the 
rigor  of  mathematical  proof,  that  the  phenomena 
of  Christianity  can  only  be  explained  by  conced- 
ing its  divinity.  If  Christianity  came  from  God, 
there  is  an  agency  adequate  to  the  result ;  and 
you  can  solve  its  making  wray  amongst  the  na- 
tions. But  if  Christianity  came  not  from  God,  no 
agency  can  be  assigned  at  all  commensurate  with 
the  result ;  and  yon  cannot  account  for  its  march- 
ings over  the  face  of  the  earth.  So  that  when — 
setting  aside  every  other  consideration — we  mark 
the  palpable  unfitness  of  the  apostles  for  devis- 
ing, and  carrying  into  effect,  a  grand  scheme  of 
imposture,  we  feel  that  we  do  right  in  retorting 
on  the  sceptic  the  often-urged  charge  of  credu- 
lity. We  tell  him,  that,  if  it  prove  a  clear-sighted 
intellect,  to  believe  that  unsupported  men  would 
league  in  an  enterprise  which  was  nothing  less 
than  a  crusade  against  the  world ;  that  ignorant 
men  would  concoct  a  system  overpassing,  con- 
fessedly, the  wisdom  of  the  noblest  of  the  hea- 
then i  and  that  this  insignificant  and  unequipped 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  41 

band  would  go  through  fire  and  water,  brave  the 
lion  and  dare  the  stake,  knowing,  all  the  while, 
that  they  struggled  for  a  lie,  and  crowned,  all  the 
while,  with  overpowering  success — aye,  we  tell 
the  sceptic,  that,  if  a  belief  such  as  this  prove  a 
clear-sighted  intellect,  he  is  welcome  to  the  lau- 
rels of  reason:  and  we,  for  our  part,  shall  con- 
tentedly herd  with  the  irrational,  who  are  weak 
enough  to  think  it  credible  that  the  apostles  were 
messengers  from  God ;  and  only  incredible  that 
mountains  fell  when  there  was  nothing  to  shake 
them,  and  oceans  dried  up  when  there  was  no- 
thing to  drain  them,  and  that  there  passed  over 
a  creation  an  unmeasured  revolution,  without  a 
cause,  and  without  a  mover,  and  without  a 
Deity. 

15.  Moral  and  intellectual  benefits  of  the  Bible. 

We  are  never  afraid  to  ascribe  to  the  preva- 
lence of  true  religion,  that  unmeasured  supe- 
riority in  all  the  dignities  and  decencies  of  life, 
which  distinguishes  a  christian  nation  as  com- 
pared with  a  heathen.  We  ascribe  it  to  nothing 
but  acquaintance  with  the  revealed  will  of  God, 
that  those  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  which  bow  at 
the  name  of  Jesus,  have  vastly  outstripped  in 
civilization  every  other,  whether  ancient  or  mo- 
dern, which  may  be  designated  pagan  and  idol- 
4<* 


42  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

atrous.  If  you  search  for  the  full  development 
of  the  principles  of  civil  liberty,  for  the  security 
of  property,  for  an  even-handed  justice,  for  the 
rebuke  of  gross  vices,  for  the  cultivation  of  so- 
cial virtues,  and  for  the  diffusion  of  a  generous 
care  of  the  suffering,  you  must  turn  to  lands 
where  the  cross  has  been  erected — as  though 
Christianity  were  identified  with  what  is  fine  in 
policy,  lofty  in  morals,  and  permanent  in  great- 
ness. Yea,  as  though  the  Bible  were  a  mighty 
volume,  containing  whatever  is  requisite  for  cor 
recting  the  disorders  of  states,  and  cementing  the 
happiness  of  families,  you  find  that  the  causing 
it  to  be  received  and  read  by  a  people,  is  tanta- 
mount to  the  producing  a  thorough  revolution — 
a  revolution  including  equally  the  palace  and  the 
cottage — so  that  every  rank  in  society  is  myste- 
riously elevated,  and  furnished  with  new  elements 
of  dignity  and  comfort.  Who  then  will  refuse  to 
confess,  that,  even  if  regard  were  had  to  nothing 
beyond  the  present  narrow  scene,  there  is  no  gift 
comparable  to  that  of  the  Bible  ;  and  that  conse- 
quently, though  a  nation  might  throw  away,  as 
did  the  Jewish,  the  greatest  of  their  privileges, 
and  fail  to  grasp  the  immortality  set  before  them 
in  the  revelation  entrusted  to  their  keeping,  there 
would  yet  be  proof  enough  of  their  having  pos- 
sessed a  vast  advantage  over  others,  in  the  fact 
adduced  by  St.  Paul,  that  w  unto  them  had  been 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  43 

committed  the  oracles  of  GodV'  and  we  stand 
indebted  to  the  Bible  for  much  of  intellectual  as 
well  as  moral  advantage.  Indeed  the  two  go 
together.  Where  there  is  great  moral  there  will 
commonly  be  great  mental  degradation ;  and  the 
intellect  has  no  fair  play,  whilst  the  man  is  under 
the  dominion  of  vice.  It  is  certainly  to  be  ob- 
served, that,  in  becoming  a  religious  man,  an  in- 
dividual seems  to  gain  a  wider  comprehension, 
and  a  sounder  judgment  ;  as  though,  in  turning 
to  God,  he  had  sprung  to  a  higher  grade  in  intel- 
ligence. It  would  mark  a  weak,  or  at  least  an  un- 
informed mind,  to  look  with  contempt  on  the 
Bible,  as  though  beneath  the  notice  of  a  man  of 
high  power  and  pursuit.  He  who  is  not  spiritual- 
ly, will  be  intellectually  benefited  by  the  study 
of  Scripture ;  and  we  would  match  the  sacred  vo- 
lume against  every  other,  when  the  object  pro- 
posed in  the  perusal  is  the  strengthening  the  un- 
derstanding by  contact  with  lofty  truth,  or  the 
refining  the  taste  by  acquaintance  with  exquisite 
beauty.  And  of  course  the  intellectual  benefit  is 
greatly  heightened,  if  accompanied  by  a  spiritual. 
Man  becomes  in  the  largest  sense  "  a  new  crea- 
ture," when  you  once  waken  the  dormant  im- 
mortality. It  is  not,  of  course,  that  there  is  com- 
municated any  fresh  set  of  mental  powers;  but 
there  is  removed  all  that  weight  and  oppression 
which  ignorance  and   viciousness  lay  upon  the 


44<  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

brain.  And  what  is  true  of  an  individual,  is  true, 
in  its  degree,  of  a  nation  :  the  diffusion  of  chris- 
tian knowledge  being  always  attended  by  the  diffu- 
sion of  correcter  views  in  other  departments  of 
truth  ;  so  that,  in  proportion  as  a  people  are  chris- 
tianized, you  will  find  them  more  inquiring  and 
intelligent. 

And  there  is  no  cause  for  surprise  in  the  fact, 
that  intellectual  benefits  are  conferred  by  the 
Bible.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  we  are  in- 
debted to  the  Bible  for  all  our  knowledge  of  the 
early  history  of  the  world,  of  the  creation  of  man, 
and  of  his  first  condition  and  actions.  Remove 
the  Bible,  and  we  are  left  to  conjecture  and  fable, 
and  to  that  enfeebling  of  the  understanding  which 
error  almost  necessarily  produces.  Having  no 
authentic  account  of  the  origin  of  all  things,  we 
should  bewilder  ourselves  with  theories  which 
would  hamper  our  every  inquiry ;  and  the  mind, 
perplexed  and  baffled  at  the  outset,  would  never 
expand  freely  in  its  after  investigations.  We 
should  have  confused  apprehensions  of  some  un- 
known powers  on  which  we  depended,  peopling 
the  heavens  with  various  deities,  and  subjecting 
ourselves  to  the  tyrannies  of  superstition.  And  it 
is  scarcely  to  be  disputed,  that  there  is,  in  every 
respect,  a  debasing  tendency  in  superstition  ;  and 
that,  if  wre  imagined  the  universe  around  us  full 
of  rival  and  antagonist  gods,  in  place  of  knowing 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  45 

it  under  the  dominion  of  one  mighty  First  Cause, 
we  should  enter  at  a  vast  disadvantage  on  the  scru- 
tiny *of  the  wonders  by  which  we  are  surrounded  5 
the  intellect  being  clouded  by  the  mists  of  moral 
darkness,  and  all  nature  overcast  through  want 
of  knowledge  of  its  author. 

The  astronomer  may  have  been  guided,  how- 
ever unconsciously,  by  the  Bible,  as  he  has 
pushed  his  discoveries  across  the  broad  fields  of 
space.  Why  is  it  that  the  chief  secrets  of  na- 
ture have  been  penetrated  only  in  christian  times, 
and  in  christian  lands ;  and  that  men,  whose 
names  are  first  in  the  roll  on  which  science  em- 
blazons her  achievements,  have  been  men  on 
whom  fell  the  rich  light  of  revelation  1  We  pre- 
tend not  to  say  that  it  was  revelation  which  di- 
rectly taught  them  how  to  trace  the  motions  of 
stars,  and  laid  open  to  their  gaze  mysteries 
which  had  heretofore  baffled  man's  sagacity. 
But  we  believe,  that,  just  because  their  lot  was 
cast  in  days,  and  in  scenes,  when  and  where  the 
Bible  had  been  received  as  God's  word,  their  in- 
tellect had  freer  play  than  it  would  otherwise 
have  had,  and  their  mind  went  to  its  work  with 
greater  vigor,  and  less  impediment.  We  believe 
that  he  who  sets  himself  to  investigate  the  revo- 
lutions of  planets,  knowing  thoroughly  before- 
hand who  made  those  planets  and  governs  their 
motions,  would  be  incalculably  more  likely  to 


46  BIBLE  THOUGHTS. 

reach  some  great  discovery,  than  another  who 
starts  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  truths  of  creation, 
and  ascribes  the  planets  to  chance,  or  some  unin- 
telligible agency.  And  it  is  nothing  against  this 
opinion,  that  some  who  have  been  eminent  by 
scientific  discoveries,  have  been  notorious  for  re- 
jection of  Christianity  and  opposition  to  the  Bible. 
Let  them  have  been  even  atheists,  not  in  a  land 
of  atheists,  but  in  a  land  of  worshipers  of  the  one 
true  God ;  and  our  conviction  is,  that,  had  they 
been  atheists  in  a  land  of  atheists,  they  would 
never  have  so  signalized  themselves  by  scientific 
discovery.  It  has  been  through  living,  as  it  were, 
in  an  atmosphere  of  truth,  however  they  them- 
selves have  imbibed  error,  that  they  have  gained 
that  elasticity  of  powers  which  has  enabled  them 
to  rise  into  unexplored  regions.  They  have  not 
been  ignorant  of  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  however 
they  may  have  repudiated  the  Bible ;  and  these 
truths  have  told  on  all  their  faculties,  freeing 
them  from  trammels,  and  invigorating  them  for 
labor  ;  so  that  very  possibly  the  eminence  which 
they  have  reached,  and  where  they  rest  with  so 
much  pride,  would  have  been  as  inaccessible  to 
themselves  as  to  the  gifted  inquirers  of  heathen 
times,  had  not  the  despised  Gospel  pioneered  the 
way,  and  the  rejected  Scriptures  unfettered  their 
understandings. 

We  are  thus  to  the  full  as  persuaded  of  the 


EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


47 


intellectual,  as  of  the  moral  benefits  produced  by 
the  Bible.  We  reckon,  that,  in  giving  the  in- 
spired volume  to  a  nation,  you  give  it  that  which 
shall  cause  its  mental  powers  to  expand,  as  well 
as  that  which  shall  rectify  existing  disorders. 
And  if  you  would  account  for  the  superiority  of 
christian  over  heathen  lands  in  what  is  intellec- 
tually great,  in  philosophy,  and  science,  and  the 
stretch  and  the  grasp  of  knowledge,  you  may 
find  the  producing  causes  in  the  possession  of 
the  Scriptures — yea,  and  men  may  come  with  all 
the  bravery  of  a  boastful  erudition,  and  demand 
admiration  of  the  might  of  the  human  mind,  as  it 
seems  to  subjugate  the  universe,  counting  the 
heavenly  hosts,  and  tracking  comets  as  they 
sweep  along  where  the  eye  cannot  follow ;  but 
so  well  assured  are  we  that  it  was  revelation 
alone  whose  beams  warmed  what  was  dwarfish 
till  it  sprang  into  this  vigor,  th,at  we  ascribe  the 
greater  mental  strength  which  a  nation  may  dis- 
play, to  their  possession  of  the  Scriptures. 

16.    The  Bible  a  promoter  of  social  happiness. 

Even  if  the  mass  of  a  nation,  privileged  with 
the  Bible,  have  their  portion  at  last  with  the  un- 
believing, it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  there  is' 
in  every  age  a  remnant  who  trust  in  the  Saviour 
whom  that  Bible  reveals.  The  blessings  which 
result  from  the  possession  of  the  Scriptures  are 


4S  BIELE    THOUGHTS. 

not  to  be  computed  from  what  appears  on  the 
surface  of  society.  There  is  a  quiet  under-cur- 
rent of  happiness,  which  is  generally  unobserved, 
but  which  greatly  swells  the  amount  of  good  to 
be  traced  to  the  Bible.  You  must  go  into  fami- 
lies, and  see  how  burdens  are  lightened,  and 
afflictions  mitigated,  by  the  promises  of  holy 
writ.  You  must  follow  men  into  their  retire- 
ments, and  learn  how  they  gather  strength,  from 
the  study  of  the  sacred  volume,  for  discharging 
the  various  duties  of  life.  You  must  be  with 
them  in  their  struggles  with  poverty,  and  observe 
how  contentment  is  engendered  by  the  prospect 
of  riches  which  cannot  fade  away.  You  must  be 
with  them  on  their  death-beds,  and  mark  how  the 
gloom  of  the  opening  grave  is  scattered  by  a 
hope  which  is  u  full  of  immortality."  And  you 
must  be  with  them — if  indeed  the  spirit  could  be 
accompanied  in  its  heavenward  flight — as  they 
enter  the  Divine  presence,  and  prove,  by  taking 
possession  of  the  inheritance  which  the  Bible 
offers  to  believers,  that  they  "  have  not  followed 
cunningly  devised  fables."  The  sum  of  happi- 
ness conferred  by  revelation  can  never  be  known 
until  God  shall  have  laid  open  all  secrets  at  the 
judgment.  We  must  have  access  to  the  history 
of  every  individual,  from  his  childhood  up  to  his 
entering  his  everlasting  rest,  ere  we  have  the 
elements   from  which  to   compute  what  chris- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  49 

Sanity  hath  done  for  those  who  receive  it  into 
the  heart.  And  if  but  one  or  two  were  gathered 
out  from  a  people,  as  a  result  of  conveying  to 
that  people  the  records  of  revelation,  there  would 
be,  we  may  not  doubt,  such  an  amount  of  con- 
ferred benefit  as  would  sufficiently  prove  the 
advantageousness  of  possessing  the  oracles  of 
God. 

It  shall  not  be  in  vain  that  God  hath  sent  the 
Bible  to  a  nation,  and  caused  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity to  be  published  within  its  borders. 

17.  Difficulties  of  Scripture. 

We  say  that  there  is  no  deficiency  of  revela- 
tion, and  that  the  difficulties  which  occur  in  the 
perusal  of  Scripture  result  from  the  majesty  of 
the  introduced  subjects,  and  the  weakness  of  the 
faculties  turned  on  their  study.  It  is  little  short 
of  a  contradiction  in  terms,  to  speak  of  a  revela- 
tion free  altogether  from  "  things  hard  to  be  un- 
derstood." And  we  are  well  persuaded,  that, 
however  disposed  men  may  be  to  make  the  diffi- 
culties an  objection  to  the  Bible,  the  absence  of 
those  difficulties  would  have  been  eagerly  seized 
on  as  a  proof  of  imposture.  There  would  have 
been  fairness  in  the  objection — and  scepticism 
would  not  have  been  slow  in  triumphantly  urg- 
ing it — that  a  book,  which  brought  down  the 
infinite  to  the  level  of  the  finite,  must  contain 
5 


50  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

false  representations,  and  deserve,  therefore,  to 
be  placed  under  the  outlawry  of  the  world.  We 
should  have  had  reason  taking  up  an  opposite 
position,  but  one  far  more  tenable  than  she  occu- 
pies when  arguing  from  the  difficulty,  against 
the  divinity,  of  Scripture.  Reason  has  sagacity 
enough,  if  you  remove  the  bias  of  the  ,f  evil  heart 
of  unbelief,"  to  perceive  the  impossibility  that 
God  should  be  searched  out  and  comprehended 
by  man.  And  if,  therefore,  reason  sat  in  judg- 
ment on  a  professed  revelation  of  the  Almighty, 
and  found  that  it  gave  no  account  of  the  Deity, 
but  one,  in  every  respect,  easy  and  intelligible, 
so  that  God  described  himself  as  removed  not, 
either  in  essence  or  properties,  from  the  ken  of 
humanity,  it  can  scarcely  be  questioned  that  she 
would  give  down  as  her  verdict,  and  that  justice 
would  loudly  applaud  the  decision,  that  the  al- 
leged communication  from  heaven  wanted  the 
signs  the  most  elementary  of  so  illustrious  an 
origin. 

It  can  only  be  viewed  as  a  necessary  conse- 
quence on  the  grandeur  of  the  subjects  which 
form  the  matter  of  revelation,  that,  with  every 
endeavor  at  simplicity  of  style  and  aptitude  of 
illustration,  the  document  contains  statements 
which  overmatch  all  but  the  faith  of  mankind. 
And,  therefore,  we  are  bold  to  say  that  we  glory 
in  the  difficulties  of  Scripture.     We  can  indeed 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  51 

desire,  as  well  as  those  who  would  turn  these 
difficulties  into  occasion  of  cavil  and  objection, 
to  understand,  with  a  thorough  accuracy,  the  re- 
gistered truths,  and  to  penetrate  and  explore 
those  solemn  mysteries  which  crowd  the  pages 
of  inspiration.  We  can  feel,  whilst  the  volume 
of  Holy  Writ  lies  open  before  us,  and  facts  are 
presented  which  seem  every  way  infinite — height, 
and  breadth,  and  depth,  and  length,  all  defying 
the  boldest  journeyings  of  the  spirit — we  can 
feel  the  quick*pulse  of  an  eager  wish  to  scale 
the  mountain,  or  fathom  the  abyss.  But,  at  the 
same  time,  we  know,  and  we  feel,  that  a  Bible 
without  difficulties  were  a  firmament  without 
stars.  We  know,  and  we  feel,  that  a  far-off  land, 
enamelled,  as  we  believe  it,  with  a  loveliness 
which  is  not  of  this  earth,  and  inhabited  by  a 
tenantry  gloriously  distinct  from  our  own  order 
of  being,  would  not  be  the  magnificent  and  rich- 
ly peopled  domain  which  it  is,  if  its  descriptions 
overpassed  not  the  outlines  of  human  geography. 
We  know,  and  we  feel,  that  the  Creator  of  all 
things,  he  who  stretched  out  the  heavens,  and 
sprinkled  them  with  worlds,  could  not  be,  what 
we  are  assured  that  he  is,  inaccessibly  sublime 
and  awfully  great,  if  there  could  be  given  tis  a 
portrait  of  his  nature  and  properties,  whose  every 
feature  might  be  sketched  by  a  human  pencil, 
whose  every  characteristic  scanned  by  a  human 


52  EIBL2    THOUGHTS. 

vision.  We  know,  and  we  feel,  that  the  vast  bu- 
siness of  our  redemption,  arranged  in  the  coun 
oils  of  the  far-back  eternity,  and  acted  out  amid 
the  wondering  and  throbbings  of  the  universe, 
could  not  have  been  that  stupendous  transaction 
which  gave  God  glory  by  giving  sinners  safety, 
if  the  inspired  account  brought  its  dimensions 
within  the  compass  of  a  human  arithmetic,  or 
defined  its  issues  by  the  lines  of  a  human  demar- 
cation. And,  therefore,  do  we  also  know  and 
feel  that  it  is  a  witness  to  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  that,  when  this  Bible  would  furnish  us 
with  notices  of  the  unseen  world  hereafter  to  be 
traversed,  or  when  it  would  turn  thought  on  the 
Omnipotent,  or  when  it  would  open  up  the 
scheme  of  the  restoration  of  the  fallen;  then, 
with  much  that  is  beautifully  simple,  and  which 
the  wayfaring  man  can  read  and  understand, 
there  are  mingled  dark  intimations,  and  preg- 
nant hints,  and  undeveloped  statements,  before 
which  the  weak  and  the  strong  must  alike  do  tho 
homage  of  a  reverent  and  uncalculating  submis- 
sion. We  could  not  rise  up  from  the  perusal  of 
Scripture  with  a  deep  conviction  that  it  is  the 
word  of  the  living  God,  if  we  had  found  no  oc- 
casions on  which  reason  was  required  to  humble 
herself  before  giant-like  truth,  and  implicit  faith 
has  been  the  only  act  which  came  within  our 
range  of  moral  achievement.    We  do  not  indeed 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  53 

say — for  the  saying  would  carry  absurdity  on  its 
forefront — that  we  believe  a  document  inspired, 
because,  in  part,  incomprehensible.  But  if  a 
document  profess  to  be  inspired ;  and  if  it  treat 
of  subjects  which  we  can  prove  beforehand  to  be 
above  and  beyond  the  stretchings  of  our  intellect ; 
then,  we  do  say  that  the  finding  nothing  in  such 
a  document  to  baffle  the  understanding  would  be 
a  proof  the  most  conclusive,  that  what  alleges 
itself  divine  deserves  rejection  as  a  forgery. 
And  whilst,  therefore,  we  see  going  forward  on 
all  sides  the  accumulation  of  the  evidences  of 
Christianity,  and  history  and  science  are  bringing 
their  stores  and  emptying  them  at  the  feet  of  our 
religion,  and  the  very  wrath  of  the  adversary, 
being  the  accomplishment  of  prophecy,  is  prov- 
ing that  we  follow  no  "cunningly  devised  fa- 
bles ;"  we  feel  that  it  was  so  much  to  be  ex- 
pected, yea,  rather  that  it  was  altogether  so  un- 
avoidable, that  a  revelation  would,  in  many 
parts,  be  obscure,  that  we  take  as  the  last  link  in 
the  chain  of  a  lengthened  and  irrefragable  de- 
monstration, that  there  are  in  the  Bible  tf  things 
hard  to  be  understood." 

i 

18.  Jlposiolic  Epistles. 

The  writings  of  St.  Paul,  occupying,  as  they 
do,  a  large  portion  of  the  New  Testament,  treat 

5* 


54>  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

much  of  the  sublimer  and  more  difficult  articles 
of  Christianity.  It  is  undeniable  that  there  is  a 
great  deal  made  known  to  us  by  the  epistles, 
which  could  only  imperfectly,  if  at  all,  be  derived 
from  the  Gospels.  We  have  the  testimony  of 
Christ  himself  that  he  had  many  things  to  say  to 
his  disciples,  which,  whilst  he  yet  ministered  on 
earth,  they  were  not  prepared  to  receive.  Hence 
it  was  altogether  to  be  expected  that  the  New 
Testament  would  be,  what  we  find  it,  a  progres- 
sive book  i  the  communications  of  intelligence 
growing  with  the  fuller  opening  out  of  the  dis- 
pensation. The  deep  things  of  the  Sovereignty 
of  God ;  the  mode  of  the  justification  of  sinners, 
and  its  perfect  consistence  with  all  the  attributes 
of  the  Creator  ;  the  mysteries  bound  up  in  the  re- 
jection of  the  Jew  and  the  calling  of  the  Gentile  ; 
these  enter  largely  into  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 
though  only  faintly  intimated  by  writers  who  pre- 
cede him  in  the  canon  of  Scripture.  And  it  is  a 
natural  and  unavoidable  consequence  on  the 
greater  abstruseness  of  the  topics  which  are 
handled,  that  the  apostle's  writings  should  pre- 
sent greater  difficulties  to  the  Biblical  student. 
With  the  exception  of  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
which,  as  dealing  with  the  future,  is  necessarily 
hard  to  be  interpreted,  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
is  probably  that  part  of  the  New  Testament  which 
most  demands   the  labors  of  the  commentator. 


BIELE    THOUGHTS.  55 

And  though  we  select  this  epistle  as  pre-eminent 
in  difficulties,  we  may  say  generally  of  the  writ- 
ings of  St.  Paul,  that,  whilst  they  present  simple 
and  beautiful  truths  which  all  may  understand, 
they  contain  statements  of  doctrine,' which,  even 
after  long  study  and  prayer,  will  be  but  partially 
unfolded  by  the  most  gifted  inquirers.  With  this 
admission  of  difficulty  we  must  join  the  likeli- 
hood of  misconception  and  misapplication.  Where 
there  is  confessedly  obscurity,  we  may  naturally 
expect  that  wrong  theories  will  be  formed,  and 
erroneous  inferences  deduced.  If  it  be  hard  to 
determine  the  true  meaning  of  a  passage,  it  can 
scarcely  fail  that  some  false  interpretation  will 
be  advanced,  or  espoused,  by  the  partisans  of 
theological  systems.  If  a  man  have  error  to  main- 
tain, he  will  turn  for  support  to  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture, of  which,  the  real  sense  being  doubtful,  a 
plausible  may  be  advanced  on  the  side  of  his 
falsehood.  If,  again,  an  individual  wish  to  per- 
suade himself  to  believe  tenets  which  encourage 
him  in  presumption  and  unholiness,  he  may  easi- 
ly fasten  on  separate  verses,  which,  taken  by 
themselves,  and  without  concern  for  the  analogy 
of  faith,  seem  to  mark  out  privileges  superseding 
the  necessity  of  striving  against  sin.  So  that  we 
can  find  no  cause  of  surprise  in  the  fact,  that  St. 
Peter  should  speak  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  as 
wrested  by  the  "  unleorned  and  unstable  "  to  their 


56  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

own  destruction.  He  admits  that  in  these  Epis- 
tles w  are  some  things  hard  to  be  understood." 
And  we  consider  it,  as  we  have  just  explained,  a 
necessary  consequence  on  the  difficulties,  that 
there  should  be  perversions,  whether  wilful  or 
unintentional,  of  the  writings. 

19.    Unavoidable  that  there  should  be  thing*  %n 
Scripture  hard  to  be  understood. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  Bible  would  con- 
tain H  some  things  hard  to  be  understood."  We 
should  like  to  be  told  what  stamp  of  inspiration 
there  would  be  upon  a  Bible  containing  nothing 
"hard  to  be  understood V*  Is  it  not  almost  a  self- 
evident  proposition,  that  a  revelation  without  dif- 
ficulty could  not  be  a  revelation  of  divinity  1  If 
there  lie  any  thing  of  that  unmeasured  separa- 
tion, which  we  are  all  conscious  there  must  lie, 
between  ourselves  and  the  Creator,  is  it  not  clear 
that  God  cannot  be  comprehensible  by  man  ;  and 
that,  therefore,  any  professed  revelatiori*vhich  left 
him  not  incomprehensible,  would  be  thereby  its 
own  witness  to  the  falsehood  of  its  pretensions  1 
You  ask  a  Bible  which  shall,  in  every  part,  be  sim- 
ple and  intelligible.  But  could  such  a  Bible  dis- 
course to  us  of  God,  that  Being  who  must  remain, 
necessarily  and  for  ever,  a  mystery  to  the  very 
highest  of  created  intelligences  1  Could  such  a 
Bible  treat  of  purposes,  which,  extending  them- 


I  BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  57 

selves  over  unlimited  ages,  and  embracing  the 
universe  within  their  ranges,  demand  eternity 
for  their  development,  and  infinity  for  their  thea- 
tre 1  Could  such  a  Bible  put  forward  any  account 
of  spiritual  operations,  seeing  that,  whilst  con- 
fined by  the  trammels  of  matter,  the  soul  cannot 
fathom  herself,  but  withdraws  herself,  as  it  were, 
and  shrinks  from  her  own  scrutiny  1  Could  such 
a  Bible,  in  short,  tell  us  any  thing  of  our  condi- 
tion, whether  by  nature  or  grace  1  Could  it  treat 
of  the  entrance  of  evil ;  could  it  treat  of  the  In- 
carnation ;  of  Regeneration ;  of  a  Resurrection  ; 
of  an  Immortality  1  In  reference  to  all  these  mat- 
ters, there  are  in  the  Bible  !'  things  hard  to  be 
understood."  But  it  is  not  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  handled  which  makes  them  "  hard  to  be 
understood."  The  subject  itself  gives  the  diffi- 
culty. If  you  will  not  have  the  difficulty,  you 
cannot  have  the  subject. 

20.   What  we  know  not  now  we  shall  know 
hereafter. 

We  press  upon  all  the  importance  of  reading 
the  Bible  with  prayer.  And  whilst  the  conscious- 
ness that  Scripture  contains  "things  hard  to  be 
understood"  should  bring  us  to  its  study  in  a  de- 
pendent and  humble  temper,  the  thought,  that 
what  we  know  not  now  we  shall  know  hereafter, 
should  make  each  difficulty,  as  we  leave  it  unvan- 


58  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

quished,  minister  to  our  assurance  that  a  wider 
sphere  of  being,  a  nearer  vision  and  mightier 
faculties,  await  us  when  the  second  advent  of 
the  Lord  winds  up  the  dispensation.  Thus 
should  the  mysteries  of  the  Bible  teach  us,  at 
one  and  the  same  time,  our  nothingness,  and  our 
greatness ;  producing  humility,  and  animating 
hope.  I  bow  before  these  mysteries.  I  knew 
that  I  should  find,  and  I  pretend  not  to  remove, 
them.  But  whilst  I  thus  prostrate  myself,  it  is 
with  deep  gladness  and  exultation  of  spirit.  God 
would  not  have  hinted  the  mystery,  had  he  not 
designed  hereafter  to  explain.  And,  therefore, 
are  my  thoughts  on  a  far-off  home,  and  rich 
things  are  around  me,  and  the  voices  of  many 
harpers,  and  the  shinings  of  bright  constella- 
tions, and  the  clusters  of  the  cherub  and  the 
seraph  ;  and  a  whisper,  which  seems  not  of  this 
earth,  is  circulating  through  the  soul,  "  Now  we 
see  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  then  face  to  face ; 
now  I  know  in  part,  but  then  shall  I  know  even  as 
also  I  am  known."  May  God  grant  unto  all  of 
us  to  be  both  abased  and  quickened  by  those 
things  in  the  Bible  which  are  "  hard  to  be 
Understood." 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  59 

21.  Immortality  of  the  Soul  clearly  discovered 
only  by  the  Gospel. 

Without  revelation  men  may  have  ascertained^ 
at  least,  the  existence  of  a  principle,  which,  not 
being  matter,  will  not  necessarily  be  affected  by 
the  dissolution  of  matter.  And  having  once  de- 
termined that  there  is  a  portion  of  man  adapted 
for  the  soaring  away  from  the  ruins  of  matter, 
this  portion  will  be  found  so  capable  of  noble 
performances,  so  fitted  for  the  contemplation  of 
things  spiritual  and  divine,  as  to  seem  destined 
to  the  attainments  of  a  loftier  existence.  So  that 
man  might  prove  himself,  in  part,  immaterial,  and, 
therefore,  capable  of  existence  when  separate 
from  matter.  And  further,  having  shown  himself 
capable  of  a  future  existence,  he  might  also  show 
himself  capable  of  an  immortal :  there  being  am- 
ple reason  on  the  side  of  the  opinion,  that  the 
principle,  which  could  survive  at  all,  might  go  on 
surviving  for  ever. 

Man  might  thus  reason  up  from  matter  as  in- 
sensible, to  himself  as  sensible.  He  might  con- 
clude, that,  since  what  is  wholly  material  can 
never  think,  he  himself,  as  being  able  to  think, 
must  be,  in  part,  immaterial.  And  the  moment  he 
has  made  out  the  point  of  an  immaterial  princi- 
ple actuating  matter,  he  may  bring  to  bear  a  vast 
assemblage  of  proofs,  derived  alike  from  the  as- 


60  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

pirings  of  this  principle  and  the  attributes  of  God, 
all  confirmatory  of  the  notion,  that  the  immate- 
rial shall  survive  when  the  material  has  been 
worn  down  and  sepulchred. 

But  we  think  that  when  a  man  has  reasoned  up 
to  a  capacity  of  immortality,  he  would  have 
reached  the  furthest  possible  point.  We  think 
that  natural  religion  could  just  show  him  that  he 
might  live  for  ever,  but  certainly  not  that  he 
would  live  for  ever.  He  might  have  been  brought 
into  a  persuasion  that  the  principle  within  him 
was  not  necessarily  subject  to  death.  But  he 
could  not  have  assured  himself  that  God  would 
not  consign  this  principle  to  death.  It  is  one  thing 
to  prove  a  principle  capable  of  immortality,  and 
quite  another  to  prove  that  God  will  allow  it  to 
be  immortal.  And  if  man  had  brought  into  the 
account  the  misdoings  of  his  life  ;  if  he  had  re- 
membered how  grievously  he  had  permitted  the 
immaterial  to  be  the  slave  of  the  material,  giving 
no  homage  to  the  ethereal  and  magnificent  prin- 
ciple, but  binding  it  basely  down  within  the  frame- 
work of  flesh  ;  why  we  may  suppose  there  would 
have  come  upon  him  the  fear,  we  had  almost  said 
the  hope,  that,  by  an  act  of  omnipotence,  God 
would  terminate  the  existence  of  that  which 
might  have  been  everlasting,  and,  sending  a  can* 
kerworm  into  the  long-dishonored  germ,  forbid 
the  sotd  to  shoot  upwards  a  plant  of  immortality. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  61 

So  that  we  again  say,  that  a  capacity,  but  not 
a  certainty  of  immortality,  would  be,  probably, 
the  highest  discovery  arrived  at  by  natural  re- 
ligion. And  just  here  it  was  that  the  Gospel 
came  in,  and  bringing  man  tidings  from  the  Fa* 
ther  of  spirits,  informed  him  of  the  irrevocable 
appointment  that  the  soul,  like  the  Deity  of  which 
it  is  the  spark,  shall  go  not  out  and  wax  not  dim. 
Revealed  religion  approached  as  the  auxiliary  to 
natural,  and,  confirming  all  its  discoveries  of 
man's  capacity  of  immortality,  removed  all  doubts 
as  to  his  destinies  being  everlasting. 

22.  Atheist  and  worldly-minded  man  compared. 

If  we  cannot  say  to  the  atheist,  when  pointing 
to  the  surrounding  creation,  you  withstand  an 
evidence  than  which  there  cannot  be  a  greater, 
we  can  say  to  the  worldly-minded,  when  pointing 
to  the  scheme  of  redemption,  you  neglect  a  sal- 
vation than  which  there  cannot  even  be  imagined 
a  mightier.  If  the  atheist  might  appeal  from  proofs 
which  have  been  given,  to  yet  stronger  which 
might  have  been  furnished,  we  deny  that  the 
worldly-minded  can  appeal  from  what  God  hath 
done  on  their  behalf,  to  a  more  marvellous  inter- 
ference which  imagination  can  picture.  It  is  the 
property  of  redemption,  if  not  of  creation,  that  it 
leaves  no  room  for  imagination.  We  will  not 
6 


62  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

defy  a  man  to  array  in  his  mind  the  imagery  of 
an  universe,  presenting  the  impress  of  Godhead 
more  clearly  than  that  in  which  we  are  placed. 
Even  if  the  universe  remained  the  same,  we  can 
suppose  such  change  in  our  faculties  of  observa- 
tion as  would  clothe  every  star,  and  every  atom, 
and  every  insect,  with  a  hundred-fold  more  of  the 
proof  that  there  is  a  God.  But  we  will  defy  a 
man  to  conceive  a  scheme  for  the  rescue  of  a 
lost  world,  which  should  exceed,  in  any  single 
respect,  that  laid  open  by  the  Gospel.  We  affirm 
of  this  scheme,  that  it  is  so  great  that  you  can- 
not suppose  a  greater.  It  is  not  because  our  fa- 
culties are  bounded,  that  it  seems  to  us  wonder- 
ful. We  have  right  to  consider  that  it  wears  the 
same  aspect  to  the  highest  of  creatures :  the 
"mystery  of  godliness"  being  unsearchable  as 
well  to  angels  as  to  men.  And  if  it  be  supposable 
that  there  are  scenes,  which  other  beings  are 
permitted  to  traverse,  far  outdoing  in  the  won- 
derfulness  of  structure,  and  the  majesty  of  adorn- 
ment, the  earth  on  which  we  dwell — so  that  this 
creation  is  not  the  richest  in  the  tracery  of  power 
and  skill — we  pronounce  it  insupposable,  that 
there  could  have  been  made  an  arrangement  on 
behalf  of  fallen  creatures,  fuller  of  Divinity,  and 
more  worthy  amazement,  than  that  of  which  we 
are  actually  the  objects. 

We  contend  that  atheism  has  a  far  better  apo- 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  63 

logy  for  resisting  the  evidences  of  a  God  which 
are  spread  over  creation,  than  worldly-minded- 
ness  for  manifesting  insensibility  to  redemption 
through  Christ.  Atheism  may  ask  for  a  wider 
sphere  of  expatiation,  and  a  more  glowing  im- 
press of  Deity ;  for  it  falls  within  our  power /to 
conceive  of  richer  manifestations  of  the  invisible 
Godhead.  But  worldly-mindedness  cannot  ask 
for  more  touching  proof  of  the  love  of  the  Al- 
mighty, or  for  a  more  bounteous  provision  for  hu- 
man necessities,  or  for  more  stirring  motives  to 
repentance  and  obedience.  Those  of  you  who 
are  not  overcome  by  what  has  been  done  for 
them,  and  who  treat  with  indifference  and  con- 
tempt the  proffers  of  the  Gospel,  are  just  in  the 
position  of  the  atheist,  who  should  remain  the 
atheist  after  God  had  set  before  him  the  highest 
possible  demonstration  of  himself.  It  is  not  too 
bold  a  thing  to  say,  that,  in  redeeming  us,  God 
exhausted  himself.  He  gave  himself ;  and  what 
greater  gift  could  remain  unbestowed  1  So  then, 
if  you  neglect  salvation,  there  is  nothing  which 
you  would  not  neglect.  God  himself  could  pro- 
vide nothing  greater ;  and  if  therefore  you  are 
unaffected  by  this,  you  only  prove  yourselves 
incapable  of  being  moved. 

23.  Gospel  addresses  itself  to  the  fears  of  men. 
With  how  surpassing  an  energy  does  the  Gos- 


64  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

pel  appeal  to  the  fears  of  mankind  !  We  say,  to 
the  fears — for  it  were  indeed  to  take  a  contracted 
view  of  Christianity,  to  survey  it  as  proffering 
mercy,  and  to  overlook  its  demonstrations  of 
wrath.  There  is  this  marvellous  combination  in 
the  Gospel  scheme,  that  we  cannot  preach  of  par 
don  without  preaching  of  judgment.  Every  ho- 
mily as  to  how  sinners  may  be  forgiven,  is  equal- 
ly a  homily  as  to  the  fearfulness  of  their  doom, 
if  they  continue  impenitent.  We  speak  to  men 
of  Christ,  as  bearing  their  M  sins  in  his  own  body 
on  the  tree,"  and  the  speech  seems  to  breatho 
nothing  but  unmeasured  loving-kindness.  Yet 
who,  on  hearing  it,  can  repress  the  thoughts, 
what  must  sin  be,  if  no  finite  being  could  mako 
atonement ;  what  must  its  curse  be,  if  Deity  alone 
could  exhaust  it  1  The  crucifixion  is  a  procla- 
mation, than  which  there  cannot  be  imagined  a 
clearer  and  more  thrilling,  that  an  eternity  of  in- 
conceivable wretchedness  will  be  awarded  to  all 
who  continue  in  sin.  And  yet  men  do  continue 
in  sin.  The  proclamation  is  practically  as  power- 
less as  though  it  were  the  threat  of  an  infant  or 
an  idiot.  And  we  are  bold  to  say  of  this,  that 
it  is  unnatural.  Men  have  the  flesh  which  can 
quiver,  and  the  hearts  which  can  quake ;  and  we 
call  it  unnatural,  that  there  should  be  no  trem 
bling,  and  no  misgiving,  when  the  wrath  of  the 
Almighty  is  opened  before  them,  and  directed 
asrainst  them. 


•     BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  65 

24.  Jldaptedness  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Poor. 

Of  how  much  beauty  we  should  strip  the  Gospel, 
if  we  stripped  the  world  of  poverty.  It  is  one  of 
the  prime  arid  distinguishing  features  of  the  cha- 
racter of  Deity,  as  revealed  to  us  in  Scripture,  that 
the  poor  man,  just  as  well  as  the  rich  man,  is  the 
object  of  his  watchfulness:  that,  with  an  attention 
undistracted  by  the  multiplicity  of  complex  con- 
cernments, he  bows  himself  down  to  the  cry  of 
the  meanest  outcast ;  so  that  there  is  not  a  smile 
upon  a  poor  man's  cheek,  and  there  is  not  a  tear 
in  a  poor  man's  eye,  which  passes  any  more  un- 
heeded by  our  God,  than  if  the  individual  were  a 
monarch  on  his  throne,  and  thousands  crouched 
in  vassalage  before  him.  We  allow  that  when 
thought  has  busied  itself  in  traversing  the  cir- 
cuits of  creation,  shooting  rapidly  from  one  to 
another  of  those  sparkling  systems  which  crowd 
immensity,  and  striving  to  scrutinize  the  ponde- 
rous mechanism  of  a  universe,  each  department 
of  which  is  full  of  the  harmonies  of  glorious  or- 
der,— we  allow  that,  after  so  sublime  a  research, 
it  is  difficult  to  bring  down  the  mind  to  the  be- 
lief, that  the  affairs  of  an  individual,  and  seeming- 
ly insignificant,  race,  are  watched  over  with  as 
careful  a  solicitude  as  if  that  race  were  the  sole 
tenant  of  infinite  space,  and  this  our  globe  as 
much  covered  by  the  wing  of  the  Omnipotent,  as 
6* 


66  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

if  it  had  no  associates  in  wheeling  round  his 
throne.  Yet  when  even  this  belief  is  attained, 
the  contemplation  has  not  risen  iQ  one  half  of 
its  augustness.  We  must  break  up  the  race 
piecemeal, — we  must  take  man  by  man,  and  wo- 
man by  woman,  and  child  by  child, — we  must 
observe  that  to  no  two  individuals  are  there  as- 
signed circumstances,  in  every  respect  similar  ; 
but  that  each  is  a  kind  of  world  by  himself,  with 
his  own  allotments,  his  own  trials,  his  own  mer- 
cies :  and  then  only  do  we  reach  the  climax  of 
what  is  beautiful  and  strange,  when  we  parcel 
out  our  species  into  its  separate  units,  and  de- 
cide that  not  one  of  these  units  is  overlooked  by 
the  Almighty ;  but  that  just  as  it  is  the  same  hand 
which  paints  the  enamel  of  a  flower  and  guides 
the  rolling  of  a  planet,  so  it  is  the  same  guardian* 
ship  which  regulates  the  rise  and  fall  of  empires, 
and  leads  the  most  unknown  individual,  wdien  he 
gaeth  forth  to  seek  his  daily  bread.  Now  who 
perceives  not  that,  by  removing  the  poor  altoge- 
ther from  amongst  us,  we  should  greatly  obscure 
this  amazing  exhibition  1 

25.  Neglect  of  ike  Gospel. 

Be  ye  well  assured,  that,  if  ye  could  interro- 
gate the  spirits  in  wretchedness,  negligence 
would  be  that  which  they  would  chiefly  give  as 
the  cause  of  their  ruin.   There  would  be  compa- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  67 

ratively  few  who  would  tell  you  they  had  reject- 
ed Christianity  ;  few  that  they  had  embraced  de- 
istical  views ;  few  that  they  had  invented  for 
themselves  another  mode  of  acceptance  ;  but  the 
many,  the  many — their  tale  would  be,  that  they 
designed,  but  delayed  to  hearken  to  the  .Gospel ; 
that  they  gave  it  their  assent,  but  not  their  atten- 
tion ;  that — are  ye  not  staggered  by  the  likeness 
to  yourselves  1 — though  they  knew,  they  did  not 
consider  ;  apprised  of  danger,  they  took  no  pains 
to  avert  it ;  having  the  offer  of  life,  they  made 
no  effort  to  secure  it  ;  and  therefore  perished, 
finally,  miserably,  everlastingly,  through  neglect 
of  the  great  salvation.  God  grant  that  none  of 
us,  by  imitating  their  neglect,  share  their  misery. 

26.  Ingratitude  of  rejecting  the  Gospel. 

We  declare  of  the  Gospel  that  it  addresses  it- 
self directly  to  those  feelings,  which,  for  the 
most  part,  are  instantly  wakened  by  kindness  and 
beneficence.  Take  away  the  divinity  from  this 
Gospel ;  reduce  it  into  a  record  of  what  one  man 
hath  done  for  others,  and  it  relates  a  generous 
interposition,  whose  objects,  if  they  evinced  no 
gratitude,  would  be  denounced  as  disgracing  hu- 
manity. If  it  be  true  that  we  naturally  entertain 
sentiments  of  the  warmest  affection  towards 
those  who  have  done  or  suffered  some  great  thing 
on  our  behalf,  it  would  seem  quite  to  be  expected 


68  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

that  such  sentiments  would  be  called  into  most 
vigorous  exercise  by  the  Mediator's  work.  If,  in 
a  day  when  pestilence  was  abroad  on  the  earth, 
and  men  dreaded  its  entrance  into  their  house- 
holds, we  could  carry  them  to  a  bed  on  which  lay 
one  racked  by  the  terrible  malady,  and  tell  them 
that  this  individual  had  voluntarily  taken  the  fear- 
ful infection,  and  was  going  down  in  agony  to 
the  grave,  because  complying,  of  his  own  choice, 
with  a  mysterious  decree  which  assured  him, 
that,  if  he  would  thus  suffer,  the  disease  should 
have  no  power  over  their  families — is  it  credible 
that  they  would  look  on  the  dying  man  with  in- 
difference 5  or  that,  as  they  hearkened  to  his  last 
requests,  they  would  feel  other  than  a  resolve  to 
undertake,  as  the  most  sacred  of  duties,  the  ful- 
filling the  injunctions  of  one,  who,  by  so  costly 
a  sacrifice,  warded  off  the  evil  with  which  they 
were  threatened  I  And  yet,  what  would  this  be, 
compared  with  our  leading  them  to  the  scene  of 
crucifixion,  and  showing  them  the  Redeemer 
dying  in  their  stead  1  You  cannot  say,  that,  if 
the  sufferer  on  his  death-bed  would  be  a  spec- 
tacle to  excite  emotions  of  gratitude,  and  resolu- 
tions of  obedience,  the  spectacle  of  Christ  on 
the  cross  might  be  expected  to  be  surveyed  with 
carelessness  and  coldness.  Yet  such  is  undenia- 
bly the  fact.  The  result  which  would  naturally 
be  produced  is  not  produced.    Men  would  natu- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  69 

rally  feel  gratitude,  but  they  do  not  feel  grati- 
tude. They  would  naturally  be  softened  into  love 
and  submission,  and  they  manifest  only  insensi- 
bility and  hard-heartedness.  And  what  are  we  to 
say  to  this'?  Here  are  beings  who  are  capable 
of  certain  feelings,  and  who  show  nothing  of 
those  feelings  when  there  is  most  to  excite  them ; 
beings  who  can  display  love  to  every  friend  but 
the  best,  and  gratitude  to  every  benefactor  but 
their  greatest. 

27.  Awfulness  of  being  deprived  of  the  Gospel. 

We  may  be  beloved  of  God,  and  he  may  have 
purposes  of  mercy  towards  us,  whilst  he  takes 
from  us  our  temporal  advantages,  but  still  leaves 
us  our  spiritual.  He  may  be  only  disciplining  us 
as  a  parent ;  and  the  discipline  prove,  not  merely 
that  there  is  need,  but  that  there  is  room  for  re- 
pentance. But  if  we  were  once  deprived  of  the 
Gospel ;  if  the  Bible  ceased  to  circulate  amongst 
our  people ;  if  there  were  no  longer  the  preach- 
ing of  Christ  in  our  churches  ;  if  we  were  left  to 
set  up  reason  instead  of  revelation ;  to  bow  the 
knee  to  the  god  of  our  own  imaginations,  and  to 
burn  unhallowed  incense  before  the  idols  which 
the  madness  of  speculation  would  erect — then 
farewell,  a  long  farewell,  to  all  that  has  given 
dignity  to  our  state,  and  happiness  to  our  homes ; 


70  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

the  foundations  of  true  greatness  would  be  all  un- 
dermined, the  bulwarks  of  real  liberty  shaken, 
the  springs  of  peace  poisoned,  the  sources  of 
prosperity  dried  up ;  and  a  coming  generation 
would  have  to  add  our  name  to  those  of  coun- 
tries whose  national  decline  has  kept  pace  with 
their  religious,  and  to  point  to  our  fate  as  exhi- 
biting the  awful  comprehensiveness  of  the  threat, 
"  I  will  come  unto  thee  quickly,  and  will  remove 
thy  candlestick  out  of  his  place,  except  thou 
repent." 

28.  Advantages  of  religious  instruction. 

In  the  mind  of  many  a  peasant,  whose  every 
moment  is  bestowed  in  wringing  from  the  soil  a 
scanty  subsistence,  there  plumber  powers,  which, 
had  they  been  evolved  by  early  discipline,  would 
have  elevated  their  possessor  to  the  first  rank  of 
philosophers  ;  and  many  a  mechanic,  who  goes 
patiently  the  round  of  unvaried  toil,  is,  uncon- 
sciously, the  owner  of  faculties,  which,  nursed 
and  expanded  by  education,  would  have  enabled 
him  to  electrify  senates,  and  to  win  that  pre- 
eminence which  men  award  to  the  majesty  of 
genius.  There  arise  occasions,  when — peculiar 
circumstances  aiding  the  development — the  pent- 
up  talent  struggles  loose  from  its  trammels;  and 
the  peasant  and  mechanic,  through  a  sudden  out- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  71 

break  of  mind,  start  forward  to  the  places  foi 
which  their  intellect  fits  them.  But  ordinarily, 
the  powers  remain  through  life  bound-up  and 
torpid :  and  he,  therefore,  forms  but  a  contracted 
estimate  of  the  amount  of  high  mental  endow- 
ment, who  reckons  by  the  proud  marbles  which 
cause  the  aisles  of  a  cathedral  to  breathe  the 
memory  of  departed  greatness,  and  never  thinks, 
when  walking  the  village  church-yard  with  its 
rude  memorials  of  the  fathers  of  the  valley,  that, 
possibly,  there  sleeps  beneath  his  feet  one  who, 
if  early  taught,  might  have  trode  with  a  New- 
ton's step  the  firmament,  or  swept  with  a  Milton's 
hand  the  harp-strings.  We  make,  then,  every 
admission  of  the  power  which  there  is  in  culti- 
vation to  enlarge  and  unfold  the  human  under- 
standing. We  nothing  question  that  mental  ca- 
pacities are  equally  distributed  amongst  different 
classes  of  society ;  and  that,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
adventitious  circumstances  of  birth,  entailing  the 
advantages  of  education,  there  would  be  sent  out 
from  the  humbler  grades  the  same  proportion  as 
from  the  higher,  of  individuals  distinguished  by 
all  the  energies  of  talent. 

And  thus  believing  that  efforts  to  disseminate 
knowledge  may  cause  a  general  calling  forth  of 
the  mental  powers  of  our  population,  we  have  no 
other  feeling  but  that  of  pleasure  m  the  survey 
of  these  efforts.     It  is  indeed   possible — and  of 


TV  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

this  we  have  our  fears — that,  by  sending  a  throng 
of  publications  to  the  fireside  of  the  cottager, 
you  may  draw  him  away  from  the  Bible,  which 
has  heretofore  been  specially  the  poor  man's 
book,  and  thus  inflict  upon  him,  as  we  think,  an 
intellectual  injury,  as  well  as  a  moral.  But  wo 
now  only  uphold  the  superiority  of  scriptural 
knowledge,  as  compared  with  any  other,  when 
the  alone  object  proposed  is  that  of  developing 
and  improving  the  thinking  powers  of  mankind. 
And  we  reckon  that  a  fine  triumph  might  be  won 
for  Christianity,  by  taking  two  illiterate  indivi- 
duals, and  subjecting  them  to  two  different  pro- 
cesses of  mental  discipline.  Let  the  one  bo 
made  familiar  with  what  is  styled  general  infor- 
mation ;  let  the  other  be  confined  to  what  we  call 
Bible  information.  And  when,  in  each  case,  the 
process  has  gone  on  a  fair  portion  of  time,  and 
you  came  to  inquire  whose  reasoning  faculties 
had  been  most  improved,  whose  mind  had  most 
grown  and  expanded  itself,  we  are  persuaded 
that  the  scriptural  study  would  vastly  excel  the 
miscellaneous  ;  and  that  the  experiment  would 
satisfactorily  demonstrate,  that  no  knowledge 
tells  so  much  on  the  intellect  of  mankind  as  that 
which  is  furnished  by  the  records  of  inspiration 
And  if  the  grounds  of  this  persuasion  be  de- 
manded, we  think  them  so  self-evident  as  scarce- 
ly to  require  the  being  formally  advanced.    We 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  73 

say  again,  that  if  you  keep  out  of  sight  the  con- . 
cern  which  man  has  in  Scriptural  truths,  regard- 
ing him  as  born  for  eternity,  there  is  a  grandeur 
about  these  truths,  and  a  splendor,  and  a  beauty, 
which  must  amaze  and  fascinate  him,  if  he  look 
not  beyond  the  present  era  of  existence.  In  all 
the  wide  range  of  sciences,  what  science  is  there 
comparable,  in  its  sublimity  and  difficulty,  to  the 
science  of  God  'I  In  all  the  annals  of  humankind, 
what  history  is  there  so  curious,  and  so  riveting, 
as  that  of  the  infancy  of  man,  the  cradling,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  earth's  population  1  Where  will  you 
iind  a  lawgiver  from  whose  edicts  may  be  learned 
a  nobler  jurisprudence  than  is  exhibited  by  the 
statute-book  of  Moses  1  Whence  will  you  gather 
such  vivid  illustrations  of  the  power  of  truth  as 
are  furnished  by  the  march  of  Christianity,  when 
apostles  stood  alone,  and  a  whole  world  was 
against  theml  And  if  there  be  no  book  which 
treats  of  a  loftier  science,  and  none  which  con- 
tains a  more  interesting  history,  and  none  which 
more  thoroughly  discloses  the  principles  of  right 
and  the  prowess  of  truth ;  why  then,  just  so  far 
as  mental  improvement  can  be  proved  dependent 
on  acquaintance  with  scientific  matters,  or  his- 
torical, or  legal,  or  ethical,  the  Bible,  beyond  all 
other  books,  must  be  counted  the  grand  engine 
for  achieving  that  improvement. 


74>  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

29.  Cautions  against  scepticism. 

Oh,  I  could  tremble  for  those,  who,  blind  to 
the  weakness  which  is  naturally  the  portion  of 
our  race,  and  rashly  confident  in  a  strength  to 
which  the  fallen  have  no  jot  of  pretension,  adven- 
ture themselves  now  upon  the  sea  of  life,  and  go 
forth  into  a  world  where  must  often  be  encoun- 
tered temptations  to  think  lightly  of  the  faith  of 
their  fathers.  Oh,  I  say,  I  could  tremble  for  them. 
If  any  amongst  you — I  speak  it  with  all  affection, 
and  from  the  knowledge  which  positions  in  life 
have  enabled  me  to  form  of  the  progress  of  youth- 
ful infidelity — if  any  amongst  you  enter  the  busy 
scenes  of  society,  with  an  overweening  confi- 
dence in  your  own  capacities,  with  a  lofty  opin- 
ion of  the  powers  of  reason,  and  with  a  hardy 
persuasion  that  there  is  nerve  enough  in  the 
mind  to  grapple  with  divine  mysteries,  and  vigor 
enough  to  discover  truth  for  itself — if,  in  short, 
you,  the  weak,  shall  say  we  are  strong — then  I 
fear  for  you,  far  more  than  I  can  tell,  that  you 
may  fall  an  easy  prey  to  some  champion  of  here- 
tical error,  and  give  ready  ear  to  the  flattering 
schemes  of  the  worshipers  of  intellect ;  and  that 
thus  a  mortal  blight  shall  desecrate  the  buds  of 
early  promise,  and  eternity  frown  on  you  with  all 
the  cheerlessness  which  it  wears  to  those  who 
despise  the  blood  of  atonement,  and  you — the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  75 

children,  it  may  be,  of  pious  parents,  over  whose 
infancy  a  godly  father  hath  watched,  and  whose 
young  years  have  been  guarded  by  the  tender  so- 
licitudes of  a  righteous  mother — you  may  win  to 
yourselves  a  heritage  of  shame  and  confusion, 
and  go  down,  at  the  judgment,  into  the  pit  of  the 
unbelieving  and  scornful.  Better,  infinitely  bet- 
ter would  it  have  been,  that  your  parents  had 
seen  you  coffindl  and  sepulchred,  ere  as  yet  ye 
knew  evil  from  good,  than  that  they  should  have 
nursed  you,  and  nurtured  you,  to  swell,  in  later 
days,  the  ranks  of  the  apostate.  Oh,  distrust  your- 
selves, and  depend  on  a  higher  teaching  than 
human. 

30.  Preaching. 

The  virtue  which  we  ascribe  to  our  public  dis- 
courses is  derived  exclusively  from  their  consti- 
tuting an  ordained  instrumentality  ;  and  our  con- 
fidence that  the  virtue  will  not  be  found  wanting, 
flows  only  from  a  conviction  that  an  instrumen- 
tality, once  ordained,  will  be  duly  honored  by 
God.  We  believe  assuredly  that  there  is  at  work, 
in  the  sanctuaries  of  God,  an  agency  independ- 
ent of  all  human,  but  which  is  accustomed  to 
make  itself  felt  through  finite  and  weak  instru- 
ments. As  the  words  flow  from  the  lips  of  him 
who  addresses  you,  flow  apparently  in  the  un- 
aided strength  of  mere  earthly  speech,  they  may 


76  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

be  endowed  by  this  agency  with  an  energy  which 
is  wholly  from  above,  and  thus  prevail  to  the  set- 
ting Christianity  before  you  with  as  clear  evi- 
dence as  was  granted  to  those  who  saw  Jesus  in 
the  flesh.  Yea,  so  deep  is  our  persuasion  of  our 
living  under  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  and 
of  preaching  being  the  chief  engine  which  this 
Spirit  employs  in  transmitting  a  knowledge  of 
redemption,  that,  after  every  etteavor,  however 
feeble  and  inadequate  to  bring  under  men's  view 
"  the  mystery  of  godliness,"  we  feel  that  practi- 
cally as  much  is  done  for  them  as  though  they 
had  been  spectators  of  Christ's  expiatory  suffer- 
ings ;  and  therefore  could  we  boldly  wind  up 
every  such  endeavor,  by  addressing  our  auditors 
as  individuals,  "  before  whose  eyes  Jesus  Christ 
hath  been  evidently  set  forth,  crucified  among 
them." 

31.  Ineffective?iess  of  Sermo?ia+ 

We  put  it  to  yourselves  to  determine  whether 
we  are  not  describing  a  common  case,  when  we 
say  that,  if  you  could  dissect  our  congregations, 
you  would  find  a  large  mass  of  persons  who 
seem  quite  accessible  to  moral  attack  ;  whom 
you  may  easily  startle  by  a  close  address  to  the 
conscience,  or  overcome  by  a  pathetic  and  plain- 
tive description  ;  and  on  whom  when  affliction 
falls,  it  falls  with  that  subduing  and  penetrating" 


EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


power  which  gives  room  for  hope  that  it  will 
bring  them  to  repentance.  But  if  we  follow  these 
excited  listeners  from  the  place  of  assembling, 
and  these  subdued  mourners  from  the  scene  of 
affliction,  alas,  how  soon  is  it  apparent  that  what 
is  easily  roused  may  be  as  easily  lulled  ;  and 
that  you  have  only  to  remove  the  incumbent 
weight,  and  the  former  figure  is  regained.  The 
men  who  have  been  all  attention  to  the  preacher, 
whom  he  seemed  to  have  brought  completely 
under  command,  so  that  they  were  ready  to  fol- 
low him  whithersoever  he  would  lead,  settle 
back  into  their  listlessness  when  the  stimulant 
of  the  sermon  is  withdrawn ;  and  those,  whom 
the  fires  of  calamity  appeared  to  have  melted, 
harden  rapidly  into  their  old  constitution  when 
time  has  somewhat  damped  the  intenseness  of 
the  flame.  The  melancholy  truth  is,  that  the 
whole  assault  has  been  on  their  natural  sensibili- 
ties, on  their  animal  feelings ;  and  that  nothing 
like  spiritual  solicitude  has  been  produced,  whe- 
ther by  the  sermon  or  the  sorrow.  They  have 
given  much  cause  for  hope,  seeing  they  have  dis- 
played susceptibility,  and  thus  shown  themselves 
capable  of  moral  impressions.  But  they  have  dis- 
appointed expectation,  because  they  have  taken 
no  pains  to  distinguish  between  an  instinct  of 
nature  and  a  work  of  God's  Spirit,  or  rather,  be- 
cause they  have  allowed  their  feelings  to  evapo- 


^ 


78  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

rate  in  the  forming  a  resolution,  and  have  not  set 
themselves  prayerfully  to  the  carrying  it  into 
effect.  And  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  men,  on 
whom  preaching  seemed  to  have  taken  great 
hold,  as  though  they  were  moved  by  the  terrors, 
and  animated  by  the  hopes  of  Christianity ;  or 
whom  the  visitations  of  Providence  appeared  to 
have  brought  to  humility  and  contrition ;  make 
no  advances  in  the  religion  of  the  heart,  but  fal- 
sify the  hopes  which  those  who  wish  their  salva- 
tion have  ventured  to  cherish. 

32.  Parable  of  the  Sower. 

Our  Saviour  had  such  knowledge  of  the  human 
heart,  and  such  power  of  expressing  that  know- 
ledge, that  he  frequently  gives  us,  in  one  or  two 
bold  outlines,  descriptions  of  great  classes  into 
which  the  world  or  the  church  may  be  divided. 
There  is  no  more  remarkable  instance  of  this 
than  the  parable  of  the  sower.  In  that  parable 
Christ  furnishes  descriptions  of  four  classes  of 
the  hearers  of  the  Gospel,  each  description  be- 
ing brief,  and  fetched  from  the  character  of  the 
soil  on  which  the  sower  cast  his  seed.  But  the 
singularity  is,  that  these  four  classes  include  the 
whole  mass  of  hearers,  so  that,  when  combined, 
they  make  up  either  the  world  or  the  church. 
You  cannot  imagine  any  fifth  class.  For  in  every 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  79 

man  who  is  brought  within  sound  of  the  Gospel, 
the  seed  must  be  as  that  by  the  way-side,  which 
is  quickly  carried  away,  or  as  that  on  shallow 
soil  where  the  roots  cannot  strike,  or  as  that 
among  thorns  which  choke  all  the  produce ;  or, 
finally,  as  that  which,  falling  on  a  well-prepared 
place,  yields  fruit  abundantly.  You  may  try  to  find 
hearers  who  come  not  under  any  one  of  these 
descriptions,  but  you  will  not  succeed  j  whilst,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  world  has  never  yet  presented 
an  assemblage  of  mixed  hearers  which  might  not 
be  resolved  into  these  four  divisions.  And  we 
regard  it  as  an  extraordinary  evidence  of  the  sa- 
gacity, if  the  expression  be  lawful,  of  our  Lord, 
of  his  superhuman  penetration,  and  of  his  mar- 
vellous facility  in  condensing  volumes  into  sen- 
tences, that  he  has  thus  furnished,  in  few  words, 
a  sketch  of  the  whole  world  in  its  every  age,  and 
given  us,  within  the  compass  of  a  dozen  lines, 
the  moral  history  of  our  race,  as  acted  on  by  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel. 

33.  Preaching  always  profitable  to  the  right- 
minded  hearer. 

No  man,  who  keeps  Christ  stedfastly  in  view 
as  the  "  minister  of  the  true  tabernacle,"  will  ever 
fail  to  derive  profit  from  a  sermon,  and  strength 
from  a  communion.  The  grand  evil  is  that  men 
ordinarily  lose  the  chief  Minister  in  the  inferior, 


80  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

and  determine  beforehand  that  they  cannot  be 
advantaged,  unless  the  inferior  be  modelled  ex- 
actly to  their  own  pattern.  They  regard  the 
speaker  simply  as  a  man,  and  not  at  all  as  a  mes- 
senger. Yet  the  ordained  preacher  is  a  messen- 
ger, a  messenger  from  the  God  of  the  whole  earth. 
His  mental  capacity  may  be  weak — that  is  no- 
thing. His  speech  may  be  contemptible — that  is 
nothing.  His  knowledge  may  be  circumscribed — 
we  say  not,  that  is  nothing.  But  we  say  that, 
whatever  the  man's  qualifications,  he  should  rest 
upon  his  office.  And  we  hold  it  the  business  of  a 
congregation,  if  they  hope  to  find  profit  in  the 
public  duties  of  the  Sabbath,  to  cast  away  those 
personal  considerations  which  may  have  to  do 
with  the  officiating  individual,  and  to  fix  stedfast- 
ly  their  thoughts  on  the  office  itself.  Whoever 
preaches,  a  congregation  would  be  profited,  if 
they  sat  down  in  the  temper  of  Cornelius  and  Iris 
friends,  "  now  therefore  are  we  all  here  present 
before  God,  to  hear  all  things  that  are  command- 
ed thee  of  God." 

34.  Effects  of  a  view  of  the  works  of  creation. 

We  should  reckon  it  fair  evidence  against  the 
piety  of  an  individual,  if  he  could  gaze  on  the 
stars  in  their  courses,  or  travel  over  the  provin- 
ces of  this  globe,  and  mark  with  what  profusion 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  81 

all  that  can  minister  to  human  happiness  is  scat- 
tered around,  and  yet  be  conscious  of  no  ascend- 
ings  of  heart  towards  that  benevolent  Father 
who  hath  given  to  man  so  glorious  a  dwelling, 
and  over-arched  it  with  so  brilliant  a  canopy. 
Where  there  is  a  devout  spirit,  we  are  sure  that 
the  placing  a  man  whence  he  may  look  forth  on 
some  majestic  development  of  scenery,  on  luxu- 
riant valleys,  and  the  amphitheatre  of  mountains, 
and  the  windings  of  rivers,  is  the  placing  him 
where  he  will  learn  a  new  lesson  in  theology, 
and  grow  warmer  in  his  love  of  that  Eternal 
Being  "who  in  the  beginning  created  the  hea- 
vens and  the  earth." 

The  unconverted  man,  as  well  as  the  convert- 
ed, can  take  delight  in  the  beauties  of  nature, 
and  be  conscious  of  ecstacy  of  spirit,  as  his  eye 
gathers  in  the  wonders  of  the  material  universe. 
But  the  converted  man,  whilst  the  mighty  pic- 
ture is  before  him,  and  the  sublime  features  and 
the  lovely  successively  fasten  his  admiration, 
considers  who  spread  out  the  landscape  and  gave 
it  its  splendor  5  and  from  such  consideration  he 
derives  fresh  confidence  in  the  God  whom  he 
feels  to  be  his  God,  pledged  to  uphold  him  and 
supply  his  every  want.  The  unconverted  man, 
on  the  contrary,  will  either  behold  the  architec- 
ture without  giving  a  thought  to  the  Architect ; 
or,  observing  how  exquisite  a  regard  for  his  \v**l- 


82  EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

being  may  be  traced  in  the  arrangements  of 
creation,  will  strengthen  himself  in  his  appeal 
to  the  compassions  of  Deity,  by  the  tender  soli- 
citudes of  which  he  can  thus  prove  himself  the 
subject. 

35.  Heathen  before  Christ. 

We  hold  it  unquestionable,  that,  long  ere 
Christ  came  into  the  world,  much  of  truth,  yea, 
of  solid  and  illustrious  truth,  had  been  detected 
by  the  unaided  searchings  of  mankind.  We 
should  not  think  that  any  advantage  were  gained 
to  the  cause  of  revelation,  if  we  succeeded  in 
demonstrating,  that,  over  the  whole  face  of  our 
planet,  with  the  lonely  exception  of  the  narrow 
province  of  Judea,  there  had  rested,  previously 
to  the  birth  of  the  Kedeemer,  a  darkness  alto- 
gether impenetrable.  We  are  quite  ready  to 
allow,  that  where  the  full  blaze  was  not  made  vi- 
sible, glimmerings  and  sparklings  were  caught ; 
so  that,  if  upon  no  point,  connected  with  futurity, 
perfect  information  were  obtained,  upon  many 
points  a  degree  of  intelligence  was  reached 
which  should  not  be  overlooked  in  our  esti- 
mate of  heathenism.  We  think  it  right  to  assert, 
under  certain  limitations,  that  man,  whilst  left  to 
himself,  dug  fragments  of  truth  from  the  mighty 
quarry ;  though  we  know  that  he  possessed  not 
the  ability  of  fashioning  completely  the  statue* 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  83 

nor  even  of  combining  into  symmetry  the  de- 
tached portions  brought  up  by  his  oft-renewed 
strivings. 

36.   Universal  acknowledgment  of  Deity, 

If  we  begin  with  the  lowest  element  of  truth ; 
namely,  that  there  is  a  great  first  cause,  through 
whose  agency  hath  arisen  the  fair  and  costly 
fabric  of  the  visible  universe,  and  we  have  here 
a  truth,  which,  under  some  shape  or  another,  has 
been  recognized  and  held  in  every  age,  and  by 
every  nation.  Barbarism  and  civilization  have 
had  to  do  with  peculiar  forms  and  modifications 
of  this  truth.  But  neither  the  rude  processes  of 
the  one,  nor  the  attenuating  of  the  other,  have 
availed  to  produce  its  utter  banishment  from  the 
earth.  However  various  the  tribes  into  which 
the  human  race  hath  been  broken,  the  phenome- 
non has  never  existed  of  a  nation  of  atheists. 
The  voyagers  who  have  passed  over  waters 
which  had  never  been  ploughed  by  the  seaman, 
and  lighted  upon  islands  whose  loneliness  had 
shut  them  out  from  the  knowledge  and  compa- 
nionship of  other  districts  of  the  globe,  have 
found  always,  amid  the  savage  and  secluded 
inhabitants,  the  knowledge  of  some  invisible 
being,  great  in  his  power,  and  awful  in  his  ven- 
geance. 


84  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

37.  Unity  of  the  Godhead. 

Men  labored  and  struggled  hard  to  reach  the 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  Godhead.  But  philosophy, 
with  all  the  splendor  of  its  discoveries,  could  ne- 
ver banish  polytheism  from  the  earth.  It  was  re- 
served for  Christianity  to  establish  a  truth  which, 
now,  we  are  disposed  to  class  amongst  the  ele- 
ments of  even  natural  theology.  And  when  you 
contrast  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  Deity  which 
obtained  generally  before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
with  that  established  wheresoever  the  Gospel 
gains  footing  as  a  communication  from  heaven  ; 
the  one,  a  belief  in  many  gods ;  the  other,  a  be- 
lief in  one  God — the  first,  therefore,  a  belief  from 
which  reason  herself  now  instinctively  recoils: 
the  second,  a  belief  which  carries  on  its  front  the 
dignity  and  beauty  of  a  sublime  moral  fact — you 
will  quickly  admit  that  the  truth  of  the  existence 
of  God,  as  it  is  out  of  Jesus,  differs,  immeasura- 
bly, from  that  same  truth,  "  as  it  is  in  Jesus :" 
and  you  will  thus  grant  the  accuracy  of  the  pro- 
position, that  truth  becomes  practically  new  truth, 
and  effective  truth,  by  being  "  the  truth  as  it  is 
*in  Jesus." 

38.  Persons  in  the  Trinity. 

It  is  highly  important  carefully  to  distinguish 
between  what  the  Scriptures  affirm  of  the  attii- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  85 

butes,  and  what  of  the  offices,  of  the  persons  in 
the  Trinity.  In  regard  of  the  attributes,  the  em- 
ployed language  marks  perfect  equality  ;  the  Fa- 
ther, Son,  and  Spirit,  being  alike  spoken  of  as 
Eternal,  Omniscient,  Omnipotent,  Omnipresent. 
But,  in  regard  of  the  offices,  there  can  be  no  dis- 
pute that  the  language  indicates  inequality,  and 
that  both  the  Son  and  Spirit  are  represented  as 
inferior  to  the  Father.  This  may  readily  be  ac- 
counted for  from  the  nature  of  the  plan  of  re- 
demption. This  plan  demanded  that  the  Son 
should  humble  himself,  and  assume  our  nature ; 
and  that  the  Spirit  should  condescend  to  be  sent 
as  a  renovating  agent,  whilst  the  Father  was  to 
remain  in  the  sublimity  and  happiness  of  God- 
head. And  if  such  plan  were  undertaken  and 
carried  through,  it  seems  unavoidable,  that,  in 
speaking  of  its  several  parts,  the  Son  and  the 
Spirit  should  be  occasionally  described  as  infe- 
rior to  the  Father.  The  offices  being  subordinate, 
the  holders  of  those  offices,  though  naturally 
equal,  must  sometimes  be  exhibited  as  though 
one  were  superior  to  the  others.  At  one  time  they 
may  be  spoken  of  with  reference  to  their  attri- 
butes, and  then  the  language  will  mark  perfect 
equality  ;  at  another,  with  reference  to  their  offi- 
ces, and  then  it  will  indicate  a  relative  inferiority. 
And  it  is  only  by  thus  distinguishing  between 
the  lit  tributes  and  the  offices,  that-we  can  satis- 
8 


86  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

factorily  explain  the  Apostle's  declaration  of 
Christ,  that  he  is  to  deliver  up  his  kingdom  to 
the  Father,  and  to  become  himself  subject  to  the 
Father.  The  question  naturally  proposes  itself, 
How  are  statements  such  as  these  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  other  portions  of  Scripture,  which 
speak  of  Christ  as  an  everlasting  King,  and  de- 
clare his  dominion  to  be  that  which  shall  not  be 
destroyed  1  There  is  no  difficulty  in  reconciling 
these  apparently  conflicting  assertions,  if  we  con- 
sider Christ  as  spoken  of  in  the  one  case  as  God, 
in  the  other  as  Mediator.  If  we  believe  him  to 
be  God,  we  know  that  he  must  be,  in  the  largest 
sense,  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  and  that  he  can 
no  more  give  up  his  dominion  than  change  his  na- 
ture. And  then  if  we  regard  him  as  undertaking 
the  office  of  Mediator  between  God  and  man, 
we  must  admit  the  likelihood  that  he  would  be 
invested  with  an  authority,  not  necessarily  per- 
manent, which  would  last  indeed  as  long  as  the 
office,  but  cease  if  there  ever  came  a  period 
when  the  office  would  itself  be  abolished.  So 
that  there  is  no  cause  for  surprise,  nothing  which 
should  go  to  the  persuading  us  that  Christ  is  not 
God,  if  we  find  the  Son  described  as  surrender* 
ing  his  kingdom :  we  have  only  to  suppose  him 
then  spoken  of  as  Mediator,  and  to  examine 
whether  there  be  not  a  mediatorial  kingdom, 
which,  committed  to  Christ,  has  at  length  to 
bo  resigned. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  87 

39.  Mystery. 

The  Bible  tells  me  explicitly  that  Christ  was 
God ;  and  it  tells  me,  as  explicitly,  that  Christ 
was  man.  It  does  not  go  on  to  state  the  modus 
or  manner  of  the  union.  I  stop,  therefore,  where 
the  Bible  stops.  I  bow  before  a  God-man  as  my 
Mediator,  but  I  own  as  inscrutable  the  myste- 
ries of  his  person. 

It  is  thus  also  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
Three  persons  are  set  before  me  as  equally  di- 
vine. At  the  same  time,  I  am  taught  that  there 
is  only  one  God.  How  can  the  three  be  one,  and 
the  one  be  three  1  Silent  as  the  grave  is  the  Bible 
on  this  wonder.  But  I  do  not  reject  its  speech 
because  of  its  silence.  I  believe  in  three  divine 
persons,  because  told  of  a  Trinity;  I  believe  in 
one  only  God,  because  told  of  an  Unity :  but  I 
leave  to  the  developments  of  a  nobler  sphere  of 
existence  the  clearing  up  the  marvel  of  a  Trinity 
in  Unity. 

40.  God's  Eternity. 

If  I  desired  to  enlarge  a  man's  mind,  I  should 
like  to  fasten  it  on  the  truth  that  God  never  had 
beginning,  and  never  shall  have  end.  I  would  set 
it  to  the  receiving  this  truth,  and  to  the  grappling 
with  it.  I  know  that,  in  endeavoring  to  compre- 
hend this  truth,  the  mind  will  be  quickly  mas- 


88  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

tered ;  and  that,  in  attempting  to  push  on  to  its 
boundary-lines,  it  will  fall  down,  wearied  with 
travel,  and  see  infinity  still  stretching  beyond  it. 
But  the  effort  will  have  been  a  grand  mental  dis- 
cipline. And  he  who  has  looked  at  this  discovery 
of  God,  as  made  to  us  by  the  word  of  inspiration, 
is  likely  to  have  come  away  from  the  contempla- 
tion with  his  faculties  elevated,  and  at  the  same 
time  humbled ;  so  that  a  vigor,  allied  in  no  de- 
gree witji  arrogance,  will  have  been  generated 
by  the  study  of  a  Bible-truth  ;  and  the  man, 
whilst  strengthening  his  mind  by  a  mighty  exer- 
cise, will  have  learned  the  hardest,  and  the  most 
useful,  of  all  lessons — that  intellect  is  not  omni- 
potent, and  that  the  greatest  wisdom  may  be, 
oftentimes,  the  knowing  ourselves  ignorant. 

41.  God's  Omnipresence. 

It  is  an  august  and  an  overpowering  thought, 
that  our  God  should  be  alike  present  on  every 
star,  and  in  each  of  its  minutest  recesses ;  and 
that,  though  there  be  a  vast  employment  of  the 
mechanism  of  second  causes,  there  is  not 
wrought  a  beneficial  effect  throughout  the  bound- 
less expansions  of  creation,  whose  actual  author- 
ship can  be  referred  to  any  thing  short  of  the 
great  first  cause.  It  is  a  noble  contemplation, 
though  one  by  which  our  faculties  are  presently 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  89 

confounded — that  of  the  whole  universe  hanging 
upon  Deity ;  archangel,  and  angel,  and  man,  and 
beast,  and  worm,  receiving  momentary  supplies 
from  the  same  inexhaustible  fountain  ;  and  every 
tenant  of  every  system  appealing  to  the  common 
parent  to  preserve  it,  each  instant,  from  extinc- 
tion. Oh,  we  take  it  for  a  cold  and  a  withered 
heart,  which  is  conscious  of  no  unusual  and  over- 
coming emotions,  when  there  is  told,  forth  the 
amazing  fact,  that  the  God,  who  hearkens  to  the 
prayer  of  the  meanest  and  most  despised,  and 
who  is  verily  present,  in  all  his  omnipotence, 
when  invoked  by  the  very  poorest  of  the  chil- 
dren of  calamity,  should  be  actuating,  at  the 
same  moment,  all  the  machinery  of  the  universe, 
and  inspiring  all  its  animation ;  guiding  the  roll- 
ings of  every  planet,  and  the  leap  of  every  cata- 
ract, and  dealing  out  existence  to  every  thing 
that  breatheth.  We  say  again  that  it  is  this  pro- 
perty of  God,  the  property  of  acting  every  where 
at  once,  which  removes  him  furthest  from  com- 
panionship with  the  finite,  and  makes  him  inac- 
cessible to  all  the  soarings  of  the  creature.  It 
is  the  property  to  which  we  have  nothing  analo- 
gous amongst  ourselves,  even  on  the  most  re- 
duced and  miniature  scale.  A  creature  must  be 
local.  He  must  cease  to  act  in  one  place  before 
he  can  begin  to  act  in  another.  But  the  Creator 
knows  nothing  whether  of  distance  or  time.  In- 
8* 


90  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

habiting  sublimely  both  infinity  and  eternity, 
there  cannot  be  the  spot  in  space,  nor  the  instant 
in  duration,  when  and  where  he  is  not  equally 
present.  And  seeing  that  he  thus  occupies  the 
universe,  not  as  being  diffused  over  it,  but  as 
existing,  in  all  his  integrity,  in  its  every  division 
and  subdivision ;  and,  seeing,  moreover,  that  he 
waits  not  the  passage  of  centuries,  but  is  at 
•f  the  end  from  the  beginning  ;"  it  can  be  literally 
true,  without  exaggeration,  and  without  figure, 
that  r-  all  things  come  of  him  ;"  whatsoever  there 
is  of  good  being  wrought  by  him,  whatsoever  of 
evil,  permitted ;  the  present  being  of  his  per- 
formance, and  the  future  of  his  appointment. 

42.  GoiTs  Omnipresence  wondarful. 

There  is  nothing  more  wonderful  in  respect  to 
Deity  than  that  universality  of  operation  which 
is  always  ascribed  to  him.  One  grand  distinction 
between  the  infinite  being,  and  all  finite  beings, 
appears  to  us  to  be,  that  the  one  can  be  working 
a  thousand  things  at  once,  whilst  the  energies 
of  the  others  must  confine  themselves  to  one 
work  at  one  time.  If  you  figure  to  yourselves  the 
highest  of  created  intelligences,  you  endow  him 
with  a  might  which  leaves  immeasurably  behind 
the  noblest  human  powers ;  but  you  never  think 
of  investing  him  with  the  ability  of  acting,  at  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  91 

same  time,  on  this  globe,  and  on  one  of  those  far- 
ofF  planets  which  we  see  traveling  around  us. 
You  make,  in  short,  the  strength  of  an  archangel 
by  multiplying  the  strength  of  a  man.  But,  what- 
ever the  degree  up  to  which  you  think  it  needful 
to  multiply,  you  never  add  to  the  strength  the  in- 
comprehensible property,  that  it  may  be  exerting 
itself,  at  the  same  moment,  in  places  between 
which  there  is.  an  untraveled  separation,  and 
causing  its  mightiness  to  be  simultaneously  felt 
in  the  various  districts  of  a  crowded  immensity. 
If  you  even  multiplied  finite  power  till  you  sup- 
posed it  to  become  infinite,  you  would  only  keep 
adding  to  its  intenseness,  and  would  in  no  de- 
gree attribute  to  it  ubiquity.  And,  however  you 
might  suppose  this  multiplied  power  capable  of 
wonders  which  seem  to  demand  the  interposi- 
tions of  Deity,  you  would  still  consider,  that  these 
wonders  must  be  performed  in  succession ;  and 
you  would  never  imagine  of  the  power,  that,  in 
the  depths  of  every  ocean,  and  on  the  surface  of 
every  star,  it  could,  at  the  same  instant,  be  put- 
ting forth  its  magnificent  workings. 

And  thus  it  is  that  the  omnipresence  of  God- 
head is  that  property,  which,  more  than  any  other, 
outruns  our  conceptions.  In  multiplying  power, 
so  to  speak,  you  never  multiply  presence.  But 
when  you  had  even  wrought  up  the  idea  of  a 
power  which   can   create,    and   annihilate,   you 


92  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

would  give  it  one  thing  to  create  at  once,  and 
one  thing  to  annihilate  at  once ;  and  you  would 
never  suppose  it  busy  equally,  in  all  its  glory  and 
all  its  resistlessness,  in  every  department  of  an 
universe,  and  with  every  fraction  of  infinity. 

The  unapproachable  mystery — it  is  not  that 
God  should  be  in  the  midst  of  this  sanctuary,  and 
that  he  should  be  ministering  life  to  those  ga- 
thered within  its  walls— it  is,  that  he  should  be 
no  more  there  than  he  is  elsewhere,  and  no  more 
elsewhere  than  he  is  there  ;  and  that  with  as  ac- 
tual a  concentration  of  energy  as  though  he  had 
no  other  occupation,  he  should  be  supplying  our 
fast-recurring  necessities  ;  and  yet  that,  with  such 
a  diffusion  of  presence  as  causes  him  to  be  equal- 
ly every  where,  he  should  superintend  each  dis- 
trict of  creation,  and  give  out  vitality  to  each 
order  of  beings. 

43.  Disregard  of  God's  Omniscience, 

We  are  all  aware  how  powerful  a  restraint  is 
imposed  on  the  most  dissolute  and  profane,  by 
the  presence  of  an  individual  who  will  not  coun- 
tenance them  in  their  impieties.  So  long  as  they 
are  under  observation,  they  will  not  dare  to  yield 
to  imperious  desires :  they  must  shrink  into  a  soli- 
tude ere  they  will  perpetrate  crime,  or  give  in- 
dulgence to  lusts.  We  can  feel  confident  in  re- 
spect of  the  most  worldly-minded,  that,  if  there 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  93 

could  be  always  at  his  side  an  individual  of 
whom  he  stood  in  awe,  and  whose  good  opinion 
he  was  anxious  to  cultivate,  he  would  abstain 
from  many  of  his  cherished  gratifications,  and 
walk,  comparatively,  a  course  of  self-denial  and 
virtue.  He  would  be  arrested  in  far  the  greater 
part  of  his  purposes,  if  he  knew  that  he  was  act- 
ing under  the  eye  of  this  individual ;  and  it  would 
only  be  when  assured  that  the  inspection  was 
suspended  or  withdrawn,  that  he  would  follow 
unreservedly  the  bent  of  his  desires.  But  it  is 
amongst  the  most  surprising  of  moral  phenome- 
na, that  the  effect,  which  would  be  produced  by  a 
human  inspector,  is  scarcely  ever  produced  by 
a  divine.  If  a  man  can  elude  the  observation  of 
his  fellow-men,  he  straightway  acts  as  though  he 
had  eluded  all  observation :  place  him  where 
there  is  no  other  of  his  own  race,  and  he  will 
feel  as  if,  in  the  strictest  sense,  alone.  The  re- 
membrance that  the  eye  of  Deity  is  upon  him, 
that  the  infinite  God  is  continually  at  his  side — 
so  that  there  is  absurdity  in  speaking  of  a  soli- 
tude ;  every  spot  throughout  the  expansions  of 
space  being  inhabited  by  the  Almighty — this  re- 
membrance is  without  any  practical  effect  5  or 
rather  the  fact,  though  universally  known,  is  not 
considered ;  and  therefore  the  man,  though  in 
contact  with  his  Maker,  fancies  himself  in -loneli- 
ness, and  acts  as  if  certain  of  being  unobserved. 


94  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

44.  Foreknowledge  of  God. 

However  unable  we  may  be  to  reconcile  the 
certainty  of  a  foreknown  destruction  with  the 
possibility  of  avoiding  it,  we  are  bound  to  believe 
that  no  man's  doom  is  so  fixed  that  it  may  net 
be  averted  by  repentance.  It  may  appear  to  us, 
that,  all  along,  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  had 
been  a  settled  thing  in  the  purposes  of  the  Al- 
mighty ;  and  that  God's  plans  were  so  arranged 
on  the  supposition  of  the  final  infidelity  of  the 
Jews,  that  they  could  not  have  allowed  a  final 
belief  in  the  Christ.  Yet  Christ  declares  of  Je- 
rusalem, that  he  would  often  have  gathered  her 
children  together,  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chick- 
ens under  her  wings ;  and  that  on]y  their  own 
wilful  infidelity  had  prevented  his  sheltering  them 
from  every  outbreak  of  wrath.  We  cannot,  there- 
fore, doubt  that  it  was  quite  within  the  power  of 
the  Jews  to  have  repented ;  and  that,  had  they 
hearkened  to  the  voice  of  the  Saviour,  they  would 
have  escaped  all  that  punishment  which  appears 
so  predetermined,  that,  to  suppose  it  remitted, 
is  to  suppose  God's  plans  thwarted.  We  fully  ad- 
mit that  the  Saviour  must  have  known  that  those 
whom  he  called  would  not  obey.  But  there  is 
all  the  difference  between  saying  that  they  could 
not  obey,  and  that  they  would  not  obey.  In  say- 
ing that  they  could  not  obey,  we  make  them  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  95 

subjects  of  some  hidden  decree,  which  placed  an 
impassable  barrier  between  themselves  and  re- 
pentance, and  which  therefore  rendered  nugatory, 
yea,  reduced  into  mere  mockery,  the  warnings 
and  invitations  with  which  they  were  plied.  But 
in  saying  that  they  would  not  obey,  we  charge 
the  whole  blame  on  the  perverseness  of  the  hu- 
man will,  and  suppose  a  clear  space  left,  notwith- 
standing the  foreknown  infidelity,  for  those  re- 
monstrances and  persuasions  which  are  wholly 
out  of  place  where  there  is  no  power  of  heark- 
ening to  the  call. 

And  what  we  thus  hold  in  regard  to  Jerusa- 
lem, must  be  equally  held  in  regard  of  every  in- 
dividual amongst  ourselves.  But  then  it  should 
be  carefully  observed,  that  this  foreknowledge  of 
God  puts  no  restraint  upon  man  ;  obliges  him  not 
to  one  course  rather  than  to  another,  but  leaves 
him  as  free  to  choose  between  life  and  death,  as 
though  the  choice  must  be  made  before  it  could 
be  conjectured.  The  clouds  of  vengeance  were 
just  ready  to  burst  upon  Jerusalem  ;  but  the  only 
reason  why  her  children  were  not  sheltered,  was 
that  M  they  would  not."  Thus  with  ourselves — 
God  may  be  as  certain  of  our  going  down  final- 
ly into  the  pit,  as  though  we  had  already  been 
thrown  to  destruction  ;  but  the  single  reason, 
given  at  the  last,  why  we  have  not  escaped,  will 
be  our  own  rejection  of  a  proffered  deliverance. 


96  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

-There  is  no  mystery  in  this,  nothing  dark,  nothing 
inscrutable.  There  is  no  room  for  pleading  that 
a  divine  decree  was  against  us,  and  that,  therefore, 
salvation,  if  nominally  offered,  was  virtually  out 
of  reach.  It  was  not  out  of  the  reach  of  Jerusa- 
lem, though  her  grasping  it  would  have  apparent- 
ly deranged  the  whole  scheme  of  redemption. 
And  it  is  not  out  of  the  reach  of  any  one  of  us, 
however  the  final  impenitence  of  this  or  that  in- 
dividual may  be  fully  ascertained  by  the  fore- 
knowledge of  God.  It  is  nothing  to  say  that  it 
is  impossible  for  me  to  do  what  God  knows  I 
shall  not  do.  It  is  not  God's  foreknowledge,  it 
is  only  my  own  wilfulness,  which  makes  the  im- 
possibility. I  am  not  hampered,  I  am  not  shackled 
by  God's  foreknowledge  :  I  am  every  jot  as  free 
as  though  there  were  no  foreknowledge.  And 
thus,  without  searching  into  secret  things  which 
belong  only  to  God,  and  yet  maintaining  in  all 
their  integrity  the  divine  attributes,  we  can  ap- 
ply to  every  one  who  goes  on  in  impenitence, 
the  touching  remonstrance  of  Christ,  "How  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thee  under  my  wings,  and 
thou  wouldest  not !" 

How  often !  Who  is  there  amongst  us  unto 
whom  have  not  been  vouchsafed  repeated  oppor- 
tunities of  knowing  the  things  which  belong  unto 
peace  1  Who,  that  has  not  been  frequently  moved, 
by  the  expostulations  of  conscience  and  the  sug* 


STELE    THOUGHTS.  97 

gestions  of  God's  Spirit,  to  flee  the  wrath  to 
come  1  Who,  upon  whom  the  means  of  grace 
have  not  been  accumulated,  so  that,  time  after 
time,  he  has  been  threatened,  and  warned,  and 
reasoned  with,  and  besought  1  How  often !  I 
would  have  gathered  thee  in  thy  prosperity, 
when  thou  wast  spoken  to  in  mercies,  and  bidden 
to  remember  the  hand  whence  they  came.  I 
wrould  have  gathered  thee  in  thine  adversity, 
when  sorrow  had  softened  thine  heart,  and  thou 
didst  look  on  the  right  hand,  and  on  the  left,  for 
a  comforter.  How  often !  By  every  sermon  which 
thou  hast  heard,  by  every  death  in  thy  neighbor- 
hood, by  every  misgiving  of  soul,  by  every  joy 
that  cheered  thee,  and  by  every  grief  that  sad- 
dened thee,  I 'have  spoken,  but  thou  wouldest 
not.  hear ;  I  have  called,  but  thou  wouldest  not 
answer.  We  may  be  thoroughly  assured  that 
there  is  not  one  of  us  who  shall  be  able  to  plead 
at  the  last,  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  sum- 
moned, not  sufficiently  invited.  There  is  not  one 
of  us,  who  shall  be  able  to  charge  his  perdition 
on  any  thing  but  his  own  choice.  M  How  often," 
"how  often,"  will  ring  in  the  ear  of  every  man 
who  remains  unconverted  beneath  the  ministry 
of  the  Gospel ;  the  remembrance  of  abused  mer- 
cies, and  slighted  means,  and  neglected  opportu- 
nities, being  as  the  knell  of  his  unalterable  doom. 
And,  oh,  as  the  wicked  behold  the  righteous  shel- 
9 


98  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

tered  beneath  the  Mediator's  protection,  from 
all  the  fury  which  gathers  and  hurries  over  a 
polluted  creation,  we  can  believe,  that,  of  all 
racking  thoughts,  the  most  fearful  will  be,  that 
they  too  might  have  been  covered  by  the  same 
mighty  wing,  and  that,  had  they  not  chosen  ex- 
posure to  God's  wrath,  they  too  might  have 
rested  in  peace,  whilst  the  strange  work  of  de- 
struction went  forward.  Therefore  will  their 
own  consciences  either  pass  or  ratify  their  sen- 
tence. They  will  shrink  down  to  their  fire  and 
their  shame,  not  more  compelled  by  a  ministry 
of  vengeance,  than  torn  by  a  consciousness  that 
they,  like  the  children  of  Jerusalem,  might  have 
often  taken  shelter  under  the  suretyship  of  a  Re- 
deemer, and  that  they,  like  the  children  of  Jeru- 
salem, are  naked  and  defenceless,  only  because 
they  would  not  be  covered  with  his  feathers. 

45.  Justice  of  God  manifested  in  the  visible 
creation. 

It  must  be  want  of  consideration  which  makes 
us  read  only  God's  love  in  the  works  of  creation. 
We  say  of  the  man  who  infers  nothing  but  the 
benevolence  of  Deity  from  the  firmament  and  the 
landscape,  just  as  though  no  other  attribute  were 
graven  on  the  encompassing  scenery,  that  he  con- 
tents himself  with  a  superficial  glance,  or  blinds 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  99 

himself  to  the  traces  of  wrath  and  devastation. 
That  we  live  in  a  disorganized  section  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  that  our  globe  has  been  the  scene  and  sub- 
ject of  mighty  convulsions  ;  we  hold  to  be  as  legi- 
ble in  the  lineaments  of  nature,  as  that  "  the  Lord 
is  good  to  all,  and  his  tender  mercies  are  over 
all  his  works."  There  is  a  vast  deal  in  the  ap- 
pearances of  the  earth,  and  in  the  phenomena  of 
the  elements,  to  assure  us  that  evil  has  been  in- 
troduced amongst  us,  and  has  already  provoked 
the  vengeance  of  God.  So  that  a  considering  man, 
if  he  make  the  visible  creation  the  object  of  his 
reflection,  will  reach  the  conclusion,  that,  what- 
ever may  be  the  compassions  of  his  Maker,  he 
can  interfere  for  the  punishment  of  iniquity — a 
conclusion  which  at  once  dissipates  the  hope,  that 
the  love  of  God  will  mitigate,  if  not  remove,  de- 
served penalties,  and  which  therefore  strengthens 
our  proof  that,  when  we  consider,  we  shall  be 
afraid  of  God. 

46.  Justice,  of  God  fully  proved  only  by  revelation. 

We  might  obtain,  independently  of  the  scheme 
of  redemption,  a  definite  and  firm-built  persua- 
sion, that  God  is  a  just  God,  taking  cognizance 
of  the  transgressions  of  his  creatures.  We  do 
not,  then,  so  refer  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for 
proof  of  God's  justice,  as  though  no  proof  could 


100  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

be  elsewhere  obtained.  The  God  of  natural  reli 
gion  must  be  a  God  to  whom  sundry  perfections 
are  ascribed;  and  amongst  such  perfections  jus- 
tice will  find,  necessarily,  a  place.  But  we  argue 
that  the  demonstration  of  theory  will  never  com- 
mend itself  to  men's  minds  like  the  demonstra- 
tion of  practice.  There  might  have  come  to  us  a 
revelation  from  heaven,  ushered  in  with  incon- 
trovertible witness ;  and  this  revelation  might 
have  stated,  in  language  the  boldest  and  most  un- 
qualified, that  God's  justice  could  overlook  no 
iota  of  offence,  and  dispense  with  no  tittle  of  pun- 
ishment. But,  had  we  been  left  without  a  vivid 
exhibition  of  the  workings  of  this  justice,  we 
should  perpetually  have  softened  down  the  state- 
ments of  the  word,  and  argued  that,  in  all  pro- 
bability, far  more  was  said  than  ever  would  be 
done.  We  should  have  reasoned  up  from  human 
enactments  to  divine ;  and,  finding  that  the  for- 
mer are  oftentimes  far  larger  in  the  threatening 
than  in  the  exaction,  have  concluded  that  the  lat- 
ter might,  at  last,  exhibit  the  like  inequality. 

Now  if  we  would  deliver  the  truth  of  God's 
justice  from  these  misapprehensions,  whether 
wilful  or  accidental,  what  process,  we  ask  of  you, 
lies  at  our  disposal!  It  is  quite  useless  to  try 
abstract  reasoning.  The  mind  can  evade  it,  and 
the  heart  has  no  concern  with  it.  It  will  avail 
nothing  to  insist  on  the  literal  force  of  expres 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


101 


sions.  The  whole  mischief  lies  in  the  questioning 
the  thorough  putting  into  effect ;  in  the  doubting 
whether  what  is  denounced  shall  be  point  by  point 
inflicted.  What  then  shall  we  do  with  this  truth 
of  God's  justice  1  We  send  a  man  at  once  to  the 
cross  of  Christ.  We  bid  him  gaze  on  the  illus- 
trious and  mysterious  victim,  stooping  beneath 
the  amazing  burden  of  human  transgression.  We 
ask  him  whether  he  thinks  there  was  remission 
of  penalty  on  behalf  of  Him  who,  though  clothed 
in  humanity,  was  one  with  Deity ;  or  that  the 
vials  of  wrath  were  spoiled  of  any  of  their  scald- 
ing drops,  ere  emptied  on  the  surety  of  our  alien- 
ated tribes  1  We  ask  him  whether  the  ago- 
nies of  the  garden,  and  the  terrors  of  the  cru- 
cifixion, furnish  not  a  sufficient  and  thrilling  de- 
monstration, that  God's  justice,  when  it  takes  in 
hand  the  exaction  of  punishment,  does  the  work 
tlvBfcughly ;  so  that  no  bolt  is  too  ponderous  to 
be  driven  into  the  soul,  no  offence  too  minute  to 
be  set  down  in  the  reckoning  1  And  if,  when  the 
sword  of  justice  awoke  against  the  fellow  of  the 
Almighty,  it  returned  not  to  the  scabbard  till 
bathed  in  the  anguish  of  the  sufferer  ;  and  if  God's 
hatred  of  sin  be  so  intense  and  overwhelming  a 
thing,  that,  ere  transgressors  could  be  received 
into  favor,  the  Eternal  Sen  interposed,  and  hum- 
bled himself,  so  that  angels  drew  back  confounded ; 
and  endured  vicariously  such  extremity  of  wretch- 


102  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

edness  that  the  earth  reeled  at  the  spectacle)  and 
the  heavens  were  darkened ;  why,  shall  there,  or 
can  there,  be  harborage  of  the  deceitful  expecta- 
tion, that  if  any  one  of  us,  the  sons  of  the  apos- 
tate, rush '  on  the  bosses  of  the  buckler  of  the 
Lord,  and  make  trial  for  himself  of  the  justice 
of  the  Almighty,  he  shall  not  find  that  justice  as 
strict  in  its  works  as  it  is  stern  in  its  words,  pre 
pared  to  deal  out  to  him,  unsparingly  and  un- 
flinchingly, the  fiery  portion  whose  threatenings 
glare  from  the  pages  of  Scripture  1  So  then  we 
may  count  it  legitimate  to  maintain,  that  the  truth 
of  God  being  a  just  God,  is  appreciated  truth,  and 
effective  truth,  only  in  the  degree  that  it  is  truth 


47.  The  love  of  God  fully  demonstrated  only 
by  Revelation. 

We  may  confess,  that  he  who  looks  not  at  this 
attribute  through  the  person  and  work  of  the 
Mediator,  may  obtain  ideas  of  it  which  shall,  in 
certain  respects,  be  correct.  And  yet,  after  all, 
it  would  be  hard  to  prove  satisfactorily,  by  natu 
ral  theology,  that  "  God  is  love  !"  There  may  bn 
a  kind  of  poetical,  or  Arcadian  divinity,  drawn 
from  the  brightness  of  sunshine,  and  the  rich 
enamel  of  flowers,  and  the  deep,  dark  blue  of  a 
sleeping  lake.  And,  taking  the  glowing  landscape 
as  their  page  of  theology,  men  may  sketch  to 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  103 

themselves  God  unlimited  in  his  benevolence. 
But  when  the  sunshine  is  succeeded  by  the  dark- 
ness, and  the  flowers  are  withered,  and  the  wa- 
ters wrought  into  madness,  can  they  find  in  the 
wrath  and  devastation  that  assurance  of  God's 
love  which  they  derived,  unhesitatingly,  from  the 
calm  and  the  beauty  1  The  matter  of  fact  we 
hold  to  be,  that  Natural  Theology,  at  the  best,  is 
a  system  of  uncertainties,  a  balancing  of  oppo- 
sites.  I  should  draw  different  conclusions  from 
the  genial  breathings  of  one  day,  and  the  deso- 
lating simoom  of  the  next.  And  though  when  I 
had  thrown  me  down  on  an  alpine  summit,  and 
looked  forth  on  the  clusterings  of  the  grand  and 
the  lovely,  canopied  with  an  azure  that  was  full 
of  glory  ;  a  hope  that  my  Creator  loved  me, 
might  have  been  gathered  from  scenery  teeming 
with  impresses  of  kindness,  and  apparently  send- 1 
ing  out  from  waving  forests,  and  gushing  foun- 
tains, and  smiling  villages,  the  anthem  of  an  ac- 
knowledgment that  God  is  infinitely  beneficent $ 
yet  if,  on  a  sudden,  there  passed  around  me  the 
rushings  of  the  hurricane,  and  there  came  up 
from  the  valleys  the  shrieks  of  an  affrighted 
peasantry,  and  the  torrents  went  down  in  their 
strength,  sweeping  away  the  labor  of  man's 
hands,  and  the  corn  and  the  wood  which  had 
crowned  the  fields  as  a  diadem;  oh,  the  confi- 
dence which  had  been  given  me  by  an  exhibition 


104*  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

which  appeared  eloquent  of  the  benevolence  of 
Godhead,  would  yield  to  horror  and  trepidation, 
whilst  the  Eternal  One  seemed  walking  before 
me,  the  tempest  his  voice,  and  the  lightning 
his  glance,  and  a  fierce  devastation  in  his  every 
foot-print. 

Now  we  maintain,  that  the  rectifying  medium 
must  be  the  person  and  work  of  the  Saviour. 
When  we  observe  that  God  loved  us  so  well  as 
to  give  his  Son  to  death  for  us,  we  perceive  that 
the  immenseness  of  this  love  leaves  imagination 
far  behind  in  her  least  fettered  soarings.  But 
when  we  also  observe  that  love,  so  unheard-of, 
could  not  advance  straight  to  the  rescue  of  its 
objects,  but  must  wait,  ere  it  could  breathe  words 
of  forgiveness  to  the  fallen,  the  outworkings  of 
a  task  of  ignominy  and  blood  ',  there  must  vanish, 
at  once,  the  idle  expectancy  of  a  tenderness  not 
proof  against  the  cry  of  despair,  and  we  must 
learn  (unless  we  wilfully  close  the  mind  against 
conviction)  that  the  love  of  a  holy,  and  righ- 
teous, and  immutable  Being  is  that  amazing  prin- 
ciple, which  can  stir  the  universe  in  our  behalf 
during  the  season  of  grace,  and  yet,  as  soon  as 
that  season  have  terminated,  resign  us  unhesi- 
tatingly to  the  ministry  of  vengeance.  Thus,  take 
the  truth  of  God's  love  out  of  Jesus,  and  you 
will  dress  up  a  weak  sympathy  which  cannot 
permit  the  punishment  of  the  disobedient    But, 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  105 

on  the  other  hand,  take  this  truth  "  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  and  you  have  the  love  immeasurable  in 
its  stature,  but  uncompromising  in  its  penalties ; 
eager  to  deliver  the  meanest  who  repents,  yet 
nerved  to  abandon  the  thousands  who  die  hard- 
ened 5  threatening-,  therefore,  the  obdurate  in  the 
very  degree  that  it  encourages  the  penitent. 

48.  Tenderness  of  God. 

Let  all  ponder  the  simple  truth,  that  the  hav- 
ing in  their  hands  a  Bible,  which  wondrously  ex- 
hibits the  tenderness  of  Deity,  will  leave  us  with- 
out excuse,  if  not  found  at  last  at  peace  with  our 
Maker.  For  we  are  not  naturally  inaccessible  to 
kindness.  We  are  so  constituted  that  a  word  of 
sympathy,  when  we  are  in  trouble,  goes  at  once 
to  the  heart,  and  even  the  look  of  compassion 
acts  as  a  cordial,  and  excites  grateful  feelings. 
We  have  only  to  be  brought  into  circumstances 
of  pain  and  perplexity,  and  immediately  we  show 
ourselves  acutely  sensitive  to  the  voice  of  con- 
solation 5  and  any  of  our  fellow-creatures  has  only 
to  approach  us  in  the  character  of  a  comforter, 
and  we  feel  ourselves  drawn  out  towards  the  be- 
nevolent being,  and  give  him  at  once  our  thank- 
fulness and  friendship.  But  it  is  not  thus  with  re- 
ference to  God.  God  comes  to  us  in  the  hour  of 
anxiety,  bidding  us  cast  all  our  care  upon  him ; 
bat  we  look  round  for  another  resting-place.   He 


106  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

comes  to  us  in  the  season  of  affliction,  offering 
us  the  oil  and  wine  of  heavenly  consolation ;  but 
we  hew  out  for  ourselves  "  broken  cisterns."  He 
approaches  in  the  moment  of  danger,  proffering 
us  refuge  and  succor ;  but  we  trust  in  our  own 
strength,  or  seek  help  from  those  who  are  weak 
as  ourselves.  But  let  us  be  well  assured  that  this 
single  circumstance,  that  God  hath  revealed  him- 
self as  a  comforter,  to  those  whose  condition 
makes  them  need  comfort,  will  prove  us  inexcu- 
sable, if  we  die  without  giving  him  the  heart's 
best  affections.  He  acts  upon  us  in  the  manner  in 
which,  both  from  our  necessities  and  our  suscep- 
tibilities, there  is  the  greatest  likelihood  of  our 
being  moved  to  the  making  him  the  prime  object 
of  our  love.  And  if,  notwithstanding,  we  prefer 
the  creature  to  the  Creator,  what  shall  we  have 
to  urge,  when  he,  who  now  deals  with  us  in  mer- 
cy, begins  to  deal  with  us  in  vengeance  1 

49.  Mistaken  notion  of  GocPs  love. 

Allowing  the  idea  that  "  God  is  love,"  there  is 
no  property  of  the  Creator  concerning  which  it  is 
easier  to  fall  into  mistake.  We  have  no  standard 
by  which  to  estimate  divine  affections,  unless  one 
which  we  fashion  out  of  the  results  of  the  work- 
ings of  human.  And  we  know  well  enough,  that, 
amongst  ourselves,  an  intense  and  overweening 
attachment  is  almost  sure  to  blind  man  to  the 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  107 

faults  of  its  object,  or  to  cause,  at  the  least,  that 
when  the  faults  are  discerned,  due  blame  is  with- 
held. So  that,  whilst  we  have  not  before  us  a  dis- 
tinct exhibition  of  God's  love,  we  may  fall  natu- 
rally into  the  error  of  ascribing  an  effeminate 
tenderness  to  the  Almighty,  and  reckon,  exactly 
in  proportion  as  we  judge  the  love  amazing,  that 
it  will  never  permit  our  being  given  over  to  tor- 
ment. Hence,  admitting  it  to  be  truth,  yea,  most 
glorious  and  blessed  truth,  that  the  creature  is 
loved  by  the  Creator,  this  truth  must  be  viewed 
through  a  rectifying  medium,  which  shall  correct 
the  distortions  which  a  depraved  nature  produces. 

50.  Providence  of  God. 

Where  is  the  creature  which  God  does  not  sus- 
tain 1  where  is  the  solitude  which  God  does  not 
fill  1  where  is  the  want  which  God  does  not  sup- 
ply 1  where  is  the  motion  which  God  does  not 
direct  1  where  is  the  action  which  God  does  not 
overrule  1  If,  according  to  the  words  of  the 
psalmist,  we  could  ascend  up  to  heaven,  or 
make  our  bed  in  hell ;  if  we  could  take  the  wings 
of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  sea ;  in  all  this  enormous  travel,  in  this 
journey  across  the  fields  of  unlimited  space,  we 
could  never  reach  the  lonely  spot  at  which  Deity 
was  not  present  as  an  upholder  and  guardian ; 
never  find  the  lonely  world,  no,  nor  the  lonely 


108  BIBLE    THOUGHTS, 

scene  on  any  one  of  those  globes  with  which  im- 
mensity is  strewed,  which  was  not  as  strictly 
watched  by  the  ever-wakeful  eye  of  Omniscience, 
as  though  every  where  else  the  universe  were  a 
void,  and  this  the  alone  home  of  life  and  intelli- 
gence. We  have  an  assurance  which  nothing  can 
shake,  because  derived  from  the  confessed  nature 
of  Godhead,  that,  in  all  the  greatness  of  his  Al- 
mightiness,  our  Maker  is  perpetually  passing  from 
star  to  star,  and  from  system  to  system,  that  he 
may  observe  what  is  needed  by  every  order  of 
being,  and  minister  supply — and  yet  not  passing  ; 
for  he  is  always  present,  present  as  much  at  one 
moment  as  at  another,  and  in  one  world  as  in  an- 
other immeasurably  distant ;  and  covering  with 
the  wing  of  his  providence  whatever  he  hath 
formed,  and  whatever  ho  hath  animated. 

And  if  we  bring  our  thoughts  within  narrower 
compass,  and  confine  them  to  the  world  appointed 
for  men's  dwelling,  it  is  a  beautiful  truth  that 
there  cannot  be  the  creature  so  insignificant,  the 
care  so  inconsiderable,  the  action  so  unimportant, 
as  to  be  overlooked  by  Him  from  whom  we  draw 
being.  I  know  that  it  is  not  the  monarch  alone, 
at  the  head  of  his  tribes  and  provinces,  who  is 
observed  by  the  Almighty  ;  and  that  it  is  not  only 
at  some  great  crisis  in  life  that  an  individual  be- 
comes an  object  of  the  attention  of  his  Maker. 
I  know  rather  that  the  poorest,  the  meanest,  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


109 


most  despised,  shares  with  the  monarch  the  no- 
tice of  the  universal  Protector ;  and  that  this 
notice  is  so  unwearied  and  incessant,  that,  when 
he  goes  to  his  daily  toil  or  his  daily  prayer,  when 
he  lies  down  at  night,  or  rises  in  the  morning,  or 
gathers  his  little  ones  to  the  scanty  meal,  the 
poor  man  is  tenderly  watched  by  his  God ;  and 
he  cannot  weep  the  tear  which  God  sees  not,  nor 
smile  the  smile  which  God  notes  not,  nor  breathe 
the  wish  which  God  hears  not.  The  man  indeed 
of  exalted  rank,  on  whom  may  depend  the  move- 
ments of  an  empire,  is  regarded,  with  a  vigilance 
which  never  knows  suspense,  by  Him  "who 
giveth  salvation  unto  kings  ;"  and  the  Lord,  "  to 
whom  belong  the  shields  of  the  earth,"  bestows 
on  this  man  whatever  wisdom  he  displays,  and 
whatever  strength  he  puts  forth,  and  whatever  suc- 
cess he  attains.  But  the  carefulness  of  Deity  is  in 
no  sense  engrossed  by  the  distinguished  indivi- 
dual ;  but,  just  as  the  regards  which  are  turned  on 
this  earth  interfere  not  with  those  which  pour 
themselves  over  far-off  planets  and  distant  sys- 
tems, so,  whilst  the  chieftain  is  observed  and  at- 
tended with  the  assiduousness  of  what  might  seem 
an  undivided  guardianship,  the  very  beggar  is  as 
much  the  object  of  divine  inspection  and  succor, 
as  though,  in  the  broad  sweep  of  animated  being, 
there  were  no  other  to  need  the  sustaining  arm 
of  the  Creator. 

10 


110  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

And  this  is  what  we  understand  by  the  provi- 
dence of  the  Almighty.  We  believe  of  this  pro- 
vidence that  it  extends  itself  to  every  household, 
and  throws  itself  round  every  individual,  and 
takes  part  in  every  business,  and  is  concerned 
with  every  sorrow,  and  accessory  to  every  joy. 
We  believe  that  it  encircles  equally  the  palace 
and  the  cottage  ;  guiding  and  upholding  alike  the 
poor  and  the  rich  ;  ministering  to  the  king  in  his 
councils,  and  to  the  merchant  in  his  commerce, 
and  to  the  scholar  in  his  study,  and  to  the  la- 
borer in  his  husbandry — so  that,  whatever  my 
rank  and  occupation,  at  no  moment  am  I  with- 
drawn from  the  eye  of  Deity,  in  no  lawful  en- 
deavor am  I  left  to  myself,  in  no  secret  anxiety 
have  I  only  my  own  heart  with  which  I  may  com- 
mune. Oh !  it  were  to  take  from  God  all  that  is 
most  encouraging  in  his  attributes  and  preroga- 
tives, if  you  could  throw  doubt  on  this  doctrine 
of  his  universal  providence.  It  is  an  august  con- 
templation— that  of  the  Almighty  as  the  architect 
of  creation,  filling  the  vast  void  with  magnificent 
structures.  We  are  presently  confounded  when 
bidden  to  meditate  on  the  eternity  of  the  Most 
High ;  for  it  is  an  overwhelming  truth,  that  he 
who  gave  beginning  to  all  besides,  could  have  had 
no  beginning  himself.  And  there  are  other  cha- 
racteristics and  properties  of  Deity,  whose  very 
mention  excites  awe,  and  on  which  the  best  elo- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  Ill 

quence  is  silence.  But  whilst  the  universal  pro- 
vidence of  God  is  to  the  full  as  incomprehensi- 
ble as  aught  else  which  appertains  to  Divinity, 
there  is  nothing  in  it  but  what  commends  itself 
to  the  warmest  feelings  of  our  nature.  And  we 
seem  to  have  drawn  a  picture  which  is  calculated 
equally  to  raise  astonishment  and  delight,  to  pro- 
duce the  deepest  reverence  and  yet  the  fullest 
confidence,  when  we  have  represented  God  as 
superintending  whatever  occurs  in  his  infinite  do- 
main— guiding  the  roll  of  every  planet,  and  the 
rush  of  every  cataract,  and  the  gathering  of  every 
cloud,  and  the  motion  of  every  will — and  when, 
in  order  that  the  delineation  may  have  all  that 
exquisiteness  which  is  only  to  be  obtained  from 
those  home-touches  which  assure  us  that  we 
have  ourselves  an  interest  in  what  is  so  splendid 
and  surprising,  we  add,  that  he  is  with  the  sick 
man  on  his  pallet,  and  with  the  seaman  in  his 
danger,  and  with  the  widow  in  her  agony.  If  I 
would  exhibit  God  as  so  attending  to  what  is 
mighty  as  not  to  overlook  what  is  mean,  what  bet- 
ter can  I  do  than  declare  him  mustering  around 
him  the  vast  army  of  suns  and  constellations, 
and  all  the  while  hearkening  to  every  cry  which 
goes  up  from  an  afflicted  creation — and  is  not 
this  the  very  picture  sketched  by  the  psalmist, 
when,  after  the  sublime  ascription,  "  Thy  king- 
dom is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  thy  dominion 


112  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

endureth  throughout  all  generations,"  he  adds 
the  comforting  words,  ft  the  Lord  upholdeth  all 
that  fall,  and  lifteth  up  all  those  that  be  bowed 
down  1" 

51.  JVo  man  independent. 

Who  can  boast,  or  who  can  feel  himself,  inde- 
pendent, whilst  unable  to  insure  another  beat  of 
the  pulse,  or  to  decide  whether,  before  he  can 
count  two,  he  shall  be  spoiled  of  life  or  reduced 
to  beggary  1  It  is  only  in  proportion  as  men  close 
their  eyes  to  their  absolute  want  of  mastership 
over  the  future,  that  they  encourage  themselves 
in  the  delusion  of  independence.  If  they  owned, 
and  felt  themselves,  the  possessors  of  a  single 
moment,  with  no  more  power  to  secure  the  fol- 
lowing than  if  the  proposed  period  were  a  thou- 
sand centuries,  we  might  set  it  down  as  an  un- 
avoidable consequence,  that  they  would  shun  the 
presumption  of  so  acting  for  themselves  as  though 
God  were  excluded  from  superintending  their 
affairs. 

52.  God's  special  Providence. 
v  Are  we  to  suppose  that  this  or  that  ephemeral 
thing,  the  tiny  tenant  of  a  leaf  or  a  bubble,  is  too 
insignificant  to  be  observed  by  God ;  and  that  it 
is  absurd  to  think  that  the  animated  point,  whose 
existence  is  a  second,  occupies  any  portion  of 
those  inspections  which  have  to  spread  them- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  113 

selves  over  the  revolutions  of  planets,  and  the 
movements  of  angels  1  Then  to  what  authorship 
are  we  to  refer  this  ephemeral  thing  1  We  sub- 
ject it  to  the  powers  of  the  microscope,  and  are 
amazed,  perhaps,  at  observing  its  exquisite  sym- 
metries and  adornments,  with  what  skill  it  has 
been  fashioned,  with  what  glory  it  has  been 
clothed  :  but  we  find  it  said  that  it  is  dishonoring 
to  God  to  suppose  him  careful  or  observant  of 
this  insect ;  and  then  our  difficulty  is,  who  made, 
who  created  this  insect  1  I  know  not  what  there 
can  be  too  inconsiderable  for  the  providence,  if  it 
have  not  been  too  inconsiderable  for  the  creation, 
of  God.  What  it  was  not  unworthy  of  God  to 
form,  it  cannot  be  unworthy  of  God  to  preserve. 
Why  declare  any  thing  excluded  by  its  insigni- 
ficance from  his  watchfulness,  which  could  not 
have  been  produced  but  by  his  power  %  Thus  the 
universal  providence  of  God  is  little  more  than 
an  inference  from  the  truth  of  his  being  the  uni- 
versal Creator.  And  men  may  speak  of  the  little- 
ness of  this  or  that  creature,  and  ask  how  he  can 
believe  that  the  animalcule,  scarce  perceptible  as 
it  floats  by  us  on  the  evening  breeze,  is  observed 
and  cared  for  by  that  Being,  inaccessible  in  his 
sublimity,  who  "  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the 
earth,  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  are  as  grass- 
hoppers :"  but  we  ask  in  reply,  whether  or  no  it 
be  God  who  gave  its  substance  and  animation  to 
10* 


114  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

this  almost  invisible  atom ;  and  unless  they  can 
point  out  to  us  another  creator,  we  shall  hold  that 
it  must  be  every  way  worthy  of  God,  that  he 
should  turn  all  the  watchfulness  of  a  guardian  on 
the  work  of  his  own  hands. 

53.  God's  attributes  bind  him  to  punish  the 
Guilty. 

We  suppose  God  just,  and  we  suppose  him 
merciful ;  and  it  is  in  settling  the  relative  claims 
of  these  properties,  that  men  fancy  they  find 
ground  for  expecting  impunity  at  the  last.  The 
matter  to  be  adjusted  is,  how  a  being,  confessed- 
ly love,  can  so  yield  to  the  demands  of  justice  as 
to  give  up  his  creatures  to  torment ;  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  adjustment  makes  way  for  the  flatter- 
ing persuasion,  that  love  will  hereafter  triumph 
over  justice,  and  that  threatenings,  having  an- 
swered their  purpose  in  the  moral  government  of 
God,  will  not  be  so  rigidly  exacted  as  to  inter- 
fere with  the  workings  of  unbounded  compassion. 
But  it  is  not  by  considering  that  men  encourage 
themselves  in  the  thought,  that  the  claims  of  love 
and  of  justice  will  be  found  hereafter  at  variance, 
and  that,  in  the  contest  between  the  two,  those 
of  love  will  prevail.  Through  not  considering, 
men  have  hope  in  God ;  let  them  only  consider, 
and  we  are  bold  to  say  they  will  be  afraid  of  God. 

If  I  do  but  reflect  seriously  on  the  love  of  my 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  115 

Maker,  I  must  perceive  it  to  be  a  disposition  to 
produce  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness,  by  up- 
holding through  the  universe  those  principles 
of  righteousness  with  whose  overthrow  misery 
stands  indissolubly  connected.  But  it  is  quite 
evident,  that,  when  once  evil  has  been  intro- 
duced, this  greatest  amount  of  happiness  is  not 
that  which  would  result  from  the  unconditional 
pardon  of  every  worker  of  evil.  Such  pardon 
would  show  the  abandonment  of  the  principles 
of  righteousness,  and  therefore  spread  consterna- 
tion and  dismay  amongst  the  unfallen  members 
of  God's  intelligent  household.  A  benevolence 
which  should  set  aside  justice,  would  cease  to 
be  benevolence  :  it  would  be  nothing  but  a  weak- 
ness, which,  in  order  to  snatch  a  few  from  de- 
served misery,  overturned  the  laws  of  moral 
government,  and  exposed  myriads  to  anarchy  and 
wretchedness.  And  yet  further — unless  God  be 
faithful  to  his  threatenings,  I  have  no  warrant  for 
believing  that  he  will  be  faithful  to  his  promises  ; 
if  he  deny  himself  in  one,  he  ceases  to  be  God, 
and  there  is  an  end  of  all  reasonable  hope  that  he 
will  make  good  the  other. 

54.  God  the  Universal  Proprietor, 

The  creature  belongs  to  God :  and  God,  there- 
fore, cannot  give  to  the  creature  in  that  sense  in 
which  one  creature   may   give  to  another.    All 


11.6  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

that  the  creature  is,  and  all  that  the  creature  has, 
appertains  to  God  5  so  that,  in  giving,  God  alien- 
ates not  his  property  in  that  which  he  bestows. 
If  he  own,  so  to  speak,  the  angel,  or  the  man, 
then  whatever  the  angel,  or  the  man  possesses, 
belongs  still  to  his  proprietor ;  and  though  thai 
proprietor  may  give  things  to  be  used,  they  must 
continue  his  own,  in  themselves,  and  in  their  pro- 
duce. If  indeed  it  were  possible  that  a  creature 
could  become  the  property  of  any  other  than  the 
Creator,  it  might  be  also  possible  that  a  creature 
could  possess  what  was  not  the  Creator's.  But 
as  long  as  it  is  certain  that  no  creature  can  have 
right  to  call  himself  his  own — the  fact  of  crea- 
tion making  him  God's  by  an  invulnerable  title — 
it  ought  to  be  received  as  a  self-evident  truth, 
that  no  creature  can  possess  a  good  thing  which 
is  his  own.  All  which  he  receives  from  the  boun- 
ty of  God  still  belongs  to  God. 

55.  Dependence  of  all  upon  God. 

There  can  be  but  one  independent  being,  and 
on  that  one  all  others  must  depend.  An  inde- 
pendent being  must,  necessarily,  be  self-existent, 
possessing  in  himself  all  the  well-springs  of  life, 
and  all  the  sources  of  happiness.  A  being  whose 
existence  is  derived,  must,  as  necessarily,  be  de- 
pendent on  the  first  author  for  the  after-continu- 
ance. A  being  who  could  do  without  God,  would 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


117 


himself  be  God ;  and  there  needs  no  argument  to 
prove,  that,  whatever  else  God  could  make,  he 
could  not  make  himself.  And  you  must  take  it, 
therefore,  as  a  truth  which  admits  not  limitation, 
that  "  all  things  come  of  God ;"  so  that  there  is 
not  the  order  of  creatures,  whether  material  or 
immaterial,  which  stands  not,  every  moment,  in- 
debted for  every  thing  to  God,  or  which,  however 
rare  its  endowments,  and  however  majestic  its 
possessions,  could  dispense,  for  one  instant,  with 
communications  from  the  fullness  of  the  Almighty, 
or  be  thrown  on  its  own  energies,  without  being 
thrown  to  darkness  and  destruction. 

56.  God's  goodness  in  providing  for  the  Poor. 

If  we  set  ourselves  to  establish  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  that,  in  temporal  things,  God  of  his  good- 
ness has  prepared  for  the  poor,  we  seem  at  once 
arrested  in  our  demonstration  by  that  undeniable 
wretchedness  which  lies  heavy  on  the  mass  of  a 
crowded  population.  But  it  would  be  altogether 
wrong  that  we  should  judge  any  appointment  of 
God,  without  reference  being  had  to  the  distor- 
tions which  man  has  himself  introduced.  We 
feel  assured  upon  the  point,  that,  in  constructing 
the  frame-work  of  society,  God  designed  that  one 
class  should  depend  greatly  on  another,  and  that 
some  should  have  nothing  but  a  hard-earned  pit- 
tance,   whilst  others  were   charioted  in  plenty 


118  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

But  we  are  to  the  full  as  clear  upon  another 
point,  namely,  that  if  in  any  case  there  be  positive 
destitution,  it  is  not  to  be  referred  to  the  esta- 
blished ordinance  of  God,  but  only  to  some  for- 
getfulness,  or  violation  of  that  mutual  depen- 
dence which  this  ordinance  would  encourage. 
There  has  never  yet  been  the  state  of  things — 
and  in  spite  of  the  fears  of  political  economists, 
we  know  not  that  there  ever  will  be — in  which 
the  produce  of  this  earth  sufficed  not  for  its 
population.  God  has  given  the  globe  for  the 
dwelling-place  of  man,  and,  causing  that  its  val- 
leys stand  thick  with  corn,  scatters  food  over 
its  surface  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  an  enormous 
and  multiplying  tenantry.  And  unless  you  can 
show  that  he  hath  sent  such  excess  of  inhabitants 
into  this  district  of  his  empire,  that  there  cannot 
be  wrung  for  them  sufficiency  of  sustenance  from 
the  overtasked  soil,  you  will  have  made  no  ad- 
vance towards  a  demonstration,  that  the  veriest 
outcast,  worn  to  a  mere  skeleton  by  famine,  dis- 
proves the  assertion,  that  God,  of  his  goodness, 
has  prepared  for  the  poor.  The  question  is  not 
whether  every  poor  man  obtains  enough:  for 
this  brings  into  the  account  human  management. 
It  is  simply,  whether  God  has  given  enough :  for 
this  limits  our  thoughts  to  divine  appointment 
And  beyond  all  doubt,  when  we  take  this  plain 
and  straight-forward  view  of  the  subject,  we  can 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  119 

not  put  from  us  the  conclusion,  that  God,  of 
his  goodness,  has  prepared  for  the  poor.  If  he 
had  so  limited  the  productiveness  of  the  earth 
that  it  would  yield  only  enough  for  a  fraction  of 
its  inhabitants ;  and  if  he  had  allowed  that  the 
storehouses  of  nature  might  be  exhausted  by  the 
demands  of  the  myriads  whom  he  summoned  into 
life  ;  there  would  lie  objections  against  a  state- 
ment which  ascribes  to  his  goodness  the  having 
made  an  universal  provision.  But  if — and  we 
have  here  a  point  admitting  not  of  controversy — 
he  have  always  hitherto  caused  that  the  produc- 
tions of  the  globe  should  keep  pace  with  its 
population,  it  is  nothing  better  than  the  reason- 
ing of  a  child,  that  God  hath  not  provided  for 
the  poor,  because,  through  mal-administration  of 
his  bounties,  the  poor  may,  in  certain  cases,  have 
been  wholly  unprovided  for. 

57.  Claims  of  God. 

We  ask,  whether  you  will  keep  back  from  God 
what  is  strictly  his  own  %  Will  ye  rob  God,  and 
pawn  his  time,  and  his  talents,  and  his  strength 
with  the  world  \  Will  ye  refuse  him  what,  though 
it  cannot  be  given  with  merit,  cannot  be  denied 
without  ruin  ?  He  asks  your  heart ;  give  it  him  ; 
it  is  his  own.  He  asks  your  intellect ;  give  it  him  ; 
it  is  his  own.  He  asks  your  money  ;  give  it  him  5 
it  is  his  own.  Remember  the  words  of  the  apostle. 


120  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Tt  Ye  are  not  your  own ;  ye  are  bought  with  a 
price."  Oh,  we  want  you ;  nay,  the  spirits  of  the 
just  want  you  ;  and  the  holy  angels  want  you  ;  and 
the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  want 
you  ;  all  hut  the  devil  and  ruined  souls  want  you, 
to  leave  off  defrauding  the  Almighty,  and  to  give 
him  his  own,  yourselves,  his  by  creation,  his  dou- 
bly by  redemption.  I  must  give  God  the  body,  I 
must  give  God  the  soul.  I  give  him  the  body,  if  I 
clothe  the  tongue  with  his  praises ;  if  I  yield  not 
my  members  as  instruments  of  unrighteousness ; 
if  I  suffer  not  the  fires  of  unhallowed  passion  to 
light  up  mine  eye,  nor  the  vampire  of  envy  to 
suck  the  color  from  my  cheek  ;  if  I  profane  not 
my  hands  with  the  gains  of  ungodliness  ;  if  I  turn 
away  mine  ear  from  the  scoffer,  and  keep  under 
every  appetite,  and  wrestle  with  every  lust ;  mak- 
ing it  palpable  that  I  consider  each  limb  as  not 
destined  to  corruption,  but  intended  for  illustrious 
service,  when,  at  the  trumpet-blast  of  the  resur- 
rection, the  earth's  sepulchres  shall  be  riven. 
And  I  give  God  the  soul,  when  the  understanding- 
is  reverently  turned  on  the  investigations  of  ce- 
lestial truth  ;  when  the  will  is  reduced  to  meek 
compliance  with  the  divine  will ;  and  when  all  the 
affections  move  so  harmoniously  with  the  Lord's, 
that  they  fasten  on  the  objects  which  occupy  his. 
This  it  is  to  give  God  his  own.  0  God !  "  all 
things  come  of  thee  "    The  will  to  present  our- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  121 

selves  must  come  of  thee.  Grant  that  will  unto 
all  of  us,  that  we  may  consecrate  unreservedly 
every  thing  to  thy  service,  and  yet  humbly  con- 
fess that  of  thine  own  alone  do  we  give  thee. 

58.  God  all  in  all. 

It  is  not  merely  that  to  every  command  of 
Deity  there  will  be  yielded  an  instant  and  cheer- 
ful obedience,  in  every  department,  and  by  every 
inhabitant  of  the  universe.  It  is  more  than  all 
this.  It  is  that  there  shall  be  such  fibres  of  asso- 
ciation between  the  Creator  and  the  creatures — 
God  shall  be  so  wound  up,~if  the  expression  be 
lawful,  with  all  intelligent  being — that  every 
other  will  shall  move  simultaneously  with  tho 
divine,  and  the  resolve  of  Deity  be  instantaneous- 
ly felt  as  one  mighty  impulse  pervading  the  vast 
expansions  of  mind.  God  all  in  all — it  is  that 
from  the  highest  order  to  the  lowest,  archangel, 
and  angel,  and  man,  and  principality,  and  power, 
there  shall  be  but  one  desire,  one  object ;  so  that 
to  every  motion  of  the  eternal  Spirit  there  will 
be  a  corresponding  in  each  element  of  the  intel- 
lectual creation,  as  though  there  were  through- 
out but  one  soul,  one  animating,  actuating,  ener- 
gizing principle.  God  all  in  all.  I  know  not 
how  to  describe  the  harmony  which  the  expres- 
sion seems  to  indicate.  This  gathering  of  the 
11 


122  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Creator  into  every  creature ;  this  making  each 
mind  in  the  world  of  spirit  a  sort  of  centre  of 
Deity,  from  which  flow  the  high  decisions  of  di- 
vine sovereignty,  so  that,  in  all  its  amplitude, 
the  intellectual  creation  seems  to  witness  that 
God  is  equally  every  where,  and  serves  as  one 
grand  instrument  which,  at  every  point  and  in 
every  spring,  is  instinct  with  the  very  thought  of 
Him  who  "  order eth  all  things  in  heaven  and 
earth" — oh,  this  immeasurably  transcends  the 
mere  reduction  of  all  systems,  and  all  beings, 
into  a  delighted  and  uniform  obedience.  This  is 
making  God  more  than  the  universal  Ruler :  it  is 
making  him  the  universal  Actuator.  And  you 
might  tell  me  of  tribe  upon  tribe  of  magnificent 
creatures,  waiting  to  execute  the  commandments 
of  God ;  you  might  delineate  the  very  tenant  of 
every  spot  in  immensity,  bowing  to  one  sceptre, 
and  burning  with  one  desire,  and  living  for  one 
end — but  indeed  the  most  labored  and  high- 
wrought  description  of  the  universal  prevalence 
of  concord,  yields  unspeakably  to  the  simple  an- 
nouncement, that  there  shall  be  but  one  spirit, 
one  pulse,  through  creation;  and  thought  itself 
is  distanced,  when  we  hear,  that,  after  the  Son 
shall  have  surrendered  his  kingdom  to  the  Fa- 
ther, God  himself  shall  be  all  in  all  to  the 
universe. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  123 

59.  God  the  Founder  of  his  Church. 

Man  reared  the  Jewish  tabernacle,  and  man 
builded  the  Jewish  temple.  But  the  spiritual  sanc- 
tuary, of  which  these  were  but  types  and  figures, 
could  be  constructed  by  no  human  architect.  A 
finite  power  is  inadequate  to  the  fashioning  and 
collecting  living  stones,  and  to  the  weaving  the 
drapery  of  self-denial  and  obedience.  We  re- 
fer, undividedly,  to  Deity,  the  construction  of 
this  true  tabernacle,  the  church.  Had  there  been 
no  mediatorial  interference,  the  spiritual  temple 
could  never  have  been  erected.  In  the  work  and 
person  of  Christ  were  laid  the  foundation  of  this 
temple.  "  Behold,  saith  God,  I  lay  in  Zion  for  a 
foundation  a  stone,  a  tried  stone."  And  on  the 
stone  thus  laid  there  would  have  arisen  no  super- 
structure, had  not  the  finished  work  of  redemp- 
tion been  savingly  applied,  by  God's  Spirit,  to 
man's  conscience.  Though  redeemed,  not  a  soli- 
tary individual  would  go  on  to  be  saved,  unless 
God  re-created  him  after  his  own  likeness.  So 
that,  whatever  the  breadth  which  we  give  to  the 
expression,  it  must  hold  good  of  Christ's  church, 
that  the  Lord  pitched  it  and  not  man.  And  it  is 
not  more  true  of  Christ's  humanity,  mysteriously 
and  supernaturally  produced,  that  it  was  a  ta- 
bernacle which  Deity  reared,  than  of  the  compa- 
ny of  believers,  born  again  of  the  Spirit  and  re- 
newed after  God's  image,  that  they  constitute  a j 


124  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

sanctuary    which  shows   a  nobler   than  mortal 
workmanship. 

60.  Human  Misery. 

In  regard  of  the  concerns  and  occurrences  of 
life,  some  men  are  always  disposed  to  look  at 
the  bright  side,  and  others  at  the  dark.  The  tem- 
pers and  feelings  of  some  are  so  cheerful  and 
elastic,  that  it  is  hardly  within  the  power  of  ordi- 
nary circumstances  to  depress  and  overbear  them ; 
whilst  others,  on  the  contrary,  are  of  so  gloomy 
a  temperament,  that  the  least  of  what  is  adverse 
serves  to  confound  them.  But  if  we  can  divide 
men  into  these  classes,  when  reference  is  had 
simply  to  their  private  affairs,  we  doubt  whether 
the  same  division  will  hold,  we  are  sure  it  will  not 
ia  the  same  proportion,  when  the  reference  is  ge- 
nerally to  God's  dealings  with  our  race.  In  regard 
of  these  dealings,  there  is  an  almost  universal  dis- 
position to  the  looking  on  the  dark  side,  and  not 
on  the  bright ;  as  though  there  were  cause  for 
nothing  but  wonder,  that  a  God  of  infinite  love 
should  permit  so  much  misery  in  any  section  of 
his  intelligent  creation.  You  find  but  few  who  are 
ready  to  observe  what  provision  has  been  made 
for  human  happiness,  and  what  capacities  there 
are  yet  in  the  world,  notwithstanding  its  vast  dis- 
organization, of  ministering  to  the  satisfaction 
of  such  as  prefer  righteousness  to  wickedness. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  125 

Now  we  cannot  deny,  that  if  we  merely  regard 
the  earth  as  it  is,  the  exhibition  is  one  whose 
darkness  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  overcharge. 
But  when  you  seek  to  gather  from  the  condition 
of  the  world  the  character  of  its  Governor,  you 
are  bound  to  consider,  not  what  the  world  is,  but 
what  it  would  be,  if  all,  which  that  Governor  hath 
done  on  its  behalf,  were  allowed  to  produce  its 
legitimate  effect.  And  we  are  sure,  that,  when 
you  set  yourselves  to  compute  the  amount  of 
what  may  be  called  unavoidable  misery — that 
misery  which  must  equally  remain,  if  Christianity 
possessed  unlimited  sway — you  would  find  no 
cause  for  wonder,  that  God  has  left  the  earth 
burdened  with  so  great  a  weight  of  sorrow,  but 
only  of  praise,  that  he  has  provided  so  amply  for 
the  happiness  of  the  fallen. 

The  greatest  portion  of  the  misery  which  is  so 
pathetically  bewailed,  exists  in  spite,  as  it  were, 
of  God's  benevolent  arrangements,  and  would  be 
avoided,  if  men  were  not  bent  on  choosing  the 
evil,  and  rejecting  the  good.  And  even  the  una- 
voidable misery  is  so  mitigated  by  the  provisions 
of  Christianity,  that,  if  there  were  nothing  else 
to  be  borne,  the  pressure  would  not  be  heavier 
than  just  sufficed  for  the  ends  of  moral  discipline 
There  must  be  sorrow  on  the  earth,  so  long  as 
there  is  death;  but,  if  this  were  all,  the  certain 
hope  of  resurrection  and  immortality  would  dry 
11* 


126  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

every  tear,  or  cause,  at  least,  triumph  so  to  blend 
with  lamentation,  that  the  mourner  would  be  al- 
most lost  in  the  believer.  Thus  it  is  true,  both 
of  those  causes  of  unhappiness  which  would  re- 
main, if  Christianity  were  universally  prevalent r 
and  of  those  for  whose  removal  this  religion  was 
intended  and  adapted,  that  they  offer  no  argu- 
ment against  the  compassions  of  God.  The  at- 
tentive observer  may  easily  satisfy  himself,  that, 
though  for  wise  ends  a  certain  portion  of  suffer- 
ing has  been  made  unavoidable,  the  divine  deal- 
ings with  man  are,  in  the  largest  sense,  those 
of  tenderness  and  love ;  so  that,  if  the  great  ma- 
jority of  our  race  were  not  determined  to  be 
wretched,  enough  has  been  done  to  insure  their 
being  happy.  And  when  we  come  to  give  the 
reasons  why  so  vast  an  accumulation  of  wretch- 
edness is  to  be  found  in  every  district  of  the 
globe,  we  cannot  assign  the  will  and  appoint- 
ment of  God :  we  charge  the  whole  on  man's  for- 
getfulness  of  God,  on  his  contempt  or  neglect  of 
remedies  and  assuagements  divinely  provided. 

61.  Depravity  and  inability  of  Man. 
We  find  it  admitted,  in  most  quarters,  that 
man  is  a  fallen  being,  with  faculties  weakened, 
if  not  wholly  incapacitated  for  moral  achieve- 
ment. Yet  this  general  admission  is  one  of  the 
most   heartless    and   unmeaning   things   in   the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  127 

world.  It  consists  with  the  harboring  pride  and 
conceit.  It  tolerates  many  forms  and  actings  of 
self-righteousness.  And  the  matter  of  fact  is, 
that  man's  moral  disability  is  not  to  be  described, 
and  not  understood  theoretically.  We  want  some 
bold,  definite,  and  tangible  measurements.  But 
we  shall  find  these  only  in  the  work  of  Christ 
Jesus.  I  learn  the  depth  to  which  I  have  sunk, 
from  the  length  of  the  chain  let  down  to  updraw 
me.  I  ascertain  the  mightiness  of  the  ruin  by 
examining  the  machinery  of  restoration.  I  ga- 
ther that  I  must  be,  in  the  broadest  sense,  unable 
to  effect  deliverance  for  myself,  from  observing 
that  none  less  than  the  Son  of  the  Highest  had 
strength  enough  to  fight  the  battles  of  our  race. 
Thus  the  truth  of  human  apostasy,  of  human  cor- 
ruption, of  human  helplessness — how  shall  thia 
be  understood  truth  and  effective  1  We  answer, 
simply  through  being  truth  M  as  it  is  in  Jesus." 
In  the  history  of  the  incarnation  and  crucifixion 
we  read,  in  characters  not  to  be  misinterpreted, 
the  announcements,  that  man  has  destroyed  him- 
self, and  that,  whatever  his  original  powers,  he 
is  now  void  of  ability  to  turn  unto  God,  and  do 
things  well-pleasing  in  his  sight.  You  do  not, 
indeed,  alter  these  truths,  if  you  destroy  all 
knowledge  of  the  incarnation  and  crucifixion. 
But  you  remove  their  massive  and  resistless  ex- 
hibition, and  leave  us  to  our  own  vague  and  par- 


128  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

tial  computations.  We  have  nothing  practical  to 
which  to  appeal,  nothing  fixed  by  which  always 
to  estimate.  Thus,  in  spite  of  a  seeming  recog- 
nition of  truth,  wre  shall  be  turned  adrift  on  a 
wide  sea  of  ignorance  and  self-sufficiency ;  and 
all  because  truth  may  be  to  us  truth  as  it  is  in 
moral  philosophy,  truth  as  it  is  in  well-arranged 
ethics,  truth  as  it  is  in  lucid  and  incontrovertible 
statements  ;  and  yet  prove  nothing  but  despised, 
and  ill-understood,  and  powerless  truth,  as  not 
being  to  us  truth  "as  it  is  in  Jesus." 

62.  Redemption, 

No  one  can  survey  the  works  of  nature,  and 
not  perceive  that  God  has  some  regard  for  the 
children  of  men,  however  fallen  and  polluted 
they  may  be.  And  if  God  manifest  a  regard  for 
us  in  temporal  things,  it  must  be  far  from  in- 
credible that  he  would  do  the  same  in  spiritual. 
There  can  be  nothing  fairer  than  the  expectation 
that  he  would  provide  for  our  well-being  as  mo- 
ral and  accountable  creatures,  with  a  care  at  least 
equal  to  that  exhibited  towards  us  in  our  natural 
capacity.  So  that  it  is  perfectly  credible  that  God 
would  do  something  in  behalf  of  the  fallen  ;  and 
then  the  question  is,  Whether  any  thing  less  than 
redemption  through  Christ  would  be  of  worth 
and  of  efficacy]  It  is  certain  that  we  cannct 
conceive  any  possible  mode,  except  the  revealed 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  129 

mode  through  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  in  which 
Gocl  could  be  both  just  and  the  justifier  of  sin- 
ners. Reckon  and  reason  as  we  will,  we  can 
.  sketch  out  no  plan  by  which  transgressors  might 
be  saved,  the  divine  attributes  honored,  and  yet 
Christ  not  have  died.  So  far  as  we  have  the 
power  of  ascertaining,  man  must  have  remain- 
ed unredeemed,  had  he  not  been  redeemed 
through  the  incarnation  and  crucifixion.  And  if 
it  be  credible  that  God  wrould  effectively  inter- 
pose on  man's  behalf  ;  and  if  the  only  discoverable 
method  in  which  he  could  thus  interpose,  be  that 
of  redemption  through  the  sacrifice  of  his  Son, 
what  becomes  of  the  alleged  incredibility  founded 
on  the  greatness  of  God  as  contrasted  with  the 
insignificance  of  man  1  We  do  not  depreciate 
the  wonders  of  the  interference.  We  will  go  all 
lengths  in  proclaiming  it  a  prodigy  which  con- 
founds the  wisest,  and  in  pronouncing  it  a  mys- 
tery whose  depths  not  even  angels -can  fathom, 
that,  for  the  sake  of  beings  inconsiderable  as 
ourselves,  there  should  have  been  acted  out  an 
arrangement  which  brought  Godhead  into  flesh, 
and  gave  up  the  Creator  to  ignominy  and  death. 
But  the  greatness  of  the  wonder  furnishes  no 
just  grounds  for  its  disbelief.  There  can  be  no 
weight  in  the  reasoning,  that  because  man  is  so 
low,  and  God  so  high,  no  such  work  can  have 
been   wrought  as  the  redemption  of  our   race. 


130  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

We  are  certain  that  we  are  cared  for  in  our  tem- 
poral capacity ;  and  we  conclude,  therefore,  that 
we  cannot  have  been  neglected  in  our  eternal. 
And  then — finding  that,  unless  redeemed  through 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  there  is  no  supposable 
method  of  human  deliverance — it  is  not  the 
brightness  of  the  moon  as  she  travels  in  her 
lustre,  and  it  is  not  the  array  of  stars  which  are 
marshalled  on  the  firmament,  that  shall  make  us 
deem  it  incredible  that  God  would  give  his  Son 
for  our  rescue  ;  rather,  since  moon  and  stars  light 
up  man's  home,  they  shall  do  nothing  but  assure 
us  of  the  Creator's  loving-kindness  ;  and  thus 
render  it  a  thing  to  be  believed — though  still 
amazing,  still  stupendous — that  He  whose  king- 
dom is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  whose  do- 
minion endureth  throughout  all  generations, 
should  have  made  himself  to  be  sin  for  us,  that 
he  might  uphold  all  that  fall,  and  lift  up  all  those 
that  be  bowed  down. 

63.  Fullness  of  Redemption. 

We  may  affirm  salvation  to  be  great,  because 
of  the  completeness  and  fullness  of  the  work, 
great  in  itself,  as  well  as  in  its  Author.  We 
might  be  sure  that  what  a  divine  agent  under- 
took would  be  thoroughly  effected  ;  and  accord- 
ingly, the  more  we  examine  the  scheme  of  our 
redemption,  the  more  may  we  prove  it  in  every 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  131 

sense  perfect.  The  sins  of  men  were  laid  upon 
Christ  5  and  the  divinity  gave  such  worth  to  the 
sufferings  of  the  humanity,  that  the  whole  race 
might  be  pardoned,  if  the  whole  race  would  put 
faith  in  the  substitute.  There  is  consequently 
nothing  in  our  own  guiltiness  to  make  us  hesi- 
tate as  to  the  possibility  of  forgiveness.  The 
penalties  due  to  a  violated  law  have  been  dis- 
charged ;  and  therefore,  if  we  believe  in  our 
surety,  we  are  as  free  as  though  we  had  never 
transgressed.  And  is  not  that  a  great  salvation, 
which  places  pardon  within  reach  of  the  vilest 
offenders ;  and  which,  providing  an  atonement 
commensurate  with  every  amount  of  iniquity, 
forbids  any  to  despair  who  have  a  wish  to  be 
saved  1 

But  yet  further — this  salvation  not  only  pro- 
vides for  our  pardon,  so  that  punishment  may  be 
avoided  ;  it  provides  also  for  our  acceptance,  so 
that  happiness  may  be  obtained.  The  faith  which 
so  interests  us  in  Christ,  that  we  are  reckoned  to 
have  satisfied  the  law'^  penalties  in  him,  obtains 
for  us  also  the  imputation  of  his  righteousness, 
so  that  we  have  a  spotless  covering  in  which  to 
appear  before  God.  Hence  we  have  share  in 
the  obedience,  as  well  as  in  the  suffering  of  the 
Mediator ;  and  whilst  the  latter  delivers  from 
the  death  we  had  deserved,  the  former  consigns 
to  the  immortality  we  could  never  have  merited. 


13*2  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

And  is  not  this  a  great  salvation,  great  in  its  sim* 
plicity,  great  in  its  comprehensiveness,  which 
thus  meets  the  every  necessity  of  the  guilty  and 
helpless ;  and  which,  arranged  for  creatures 
whom  it  finds  in  the  lowest  degradation,  leave* 
them  not  till  elevated  to  the  very  summit  o{ 
dignity  1 

64.  Enmity  between  Man  and  Satan. 

M  I  will  put  enmity."  The  enmity,  you  observe, 
had  no  natural  existence :  God  declares  his  in- 
tention of  putting  enmity.  As  soon  as  man  trans- 
gressed, his  nature  became  evil,  and  therefore 
he  was  at  peace,  and  not  at  war  with  the  devil. 
And  thus,  had  there  been  no  interference  on  the 
part  of  the  Almighty,  Satan  and  man  would  have 
formed  alliance  against  heaven,  and,  in  place  of 
a  contest  between  themselves,  have  carried  on 
nothing  but  battle  with  God.  There  is  not,  and 
cannot  be,  a  native  enmity  between  fallen  angels 
and  fallen  men.  Both  are  evil,  and  both  became 
evil  through  apostasy.  But  evil,  wheresoever  it 
exists,  will  always  league  against  good  ;  so  that 
fallen  angels  and  fallen  men  were  sure  *to  join  in 
a  desperate  companionship.  Hence  the  declara- 
tion, that  enmity  should  be  put,  mast  have  been 
to  Satan  the  first  notice  of  redemption.  This 
lofty  spirit  must  have  calculated,  that,  if  he  could 
induce  men,  as  he  had  induced  angels,  to  join  in 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS  133 

rebellion,  he  should  have  them  for  allies  in  his 
every  enterprise  against  heaven.  There  was 
nothing*  of  enmity  between  himself  and  the  spirits 
who  had  joined  in  the  effort  to  dethrone  the 
Omnipotent.  At  least,  whatever  the  feuds  and 
jarrings  which  might  disturb  the  rebels,  they 
were  linked,  as  with  an  iron  band,  in  the  one 
great  object  of  opposing  good.  So  that  when  he 
heard  that  there  should  be  enmity  between  him- 
self and  the  woman,  he  must  have  felt  that  some 
apparatus  would  be  brought  to  bear  upon  man : 
and  that,  though  he  had  succeeded  in  depraving 
human  nature,  and  thus  assimilating  it  to  his  own, 
it  should  be  renewed  by  some  mysterious  pro- 
cess, and  wrought  up  to  the  lost  power  of  resist- 
ing its  conqueror. 

And  accordingly  it  has  come  to  pass,  that 
there  is  enmity  on  the  earth  between  man  and 
Satan  ;  but  an  enmity  sup ernatur ally  put,  and  not 
naturally  entertained.  Unless  God  pour  his  con- 
verting grace  into  the  soul,  there  will  be  no  at- 
tempt to  oppose  Satan,  but  we  shall  continue  to 
the  end  of  our  days  his  willing  captives  and  ser- 
vants. And  therefore  it  is  God  who  puts  the  en- 
mity. Introducing  anew  principle  into  the  heart, 
he  causes  conflict  where  there  had  heretofore 
been  peace,  inclining  and  enabling  man  to  rise 
against  his  tyrant.  So  that,  in  these  first  words 
of  the  prophecy,  you  have  the  clearest  intimation 
12 


134?  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

that  God  designed  to  visit  the  depraved  nature 
with  a  renovating  energy.  And  now,  whensoever 
you  see  an  individual  delivered  from  the  love,  and 
endowed  with  a  hatred  of  sin,  resisting  those  pas- 
sions which  held  naturally  sway  within  his  breast, 
and  thus  grappling  with  the  fallen  spirit  which 
claims  dominion  upon  earth,  you  are  surveying 
the  workings  of  a  principle  which  is  wholly 
from  above  ;  and  you  are  to  consider  that  you 
have  before  you  the  fulfillment  of  the  declara- 
tion, tf  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the 


65.  Conflicts  of  the  Church  with  Satan. 

We  need  scarcely  observe,  that,  from  the  first, 
the  righteous  amongst  men  have  been  objects  of 
the  combined  assault  of  their  evil  fellows  and 
evil  angels.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has  been  the  en» 
deavor  of  the  church  to  vindicate  God's  honor, 
and  arrest  the  workings  of  wickedness :  on  the 
other,  it  has  been  the  effort  of  the  serpent  and 
his  seed  to  sweep  from  the  earth  these  upholders 
of  piety.  And  though  the  promise  has  all  along 
been  verified,  that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  the  church,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
a  great  measure  of  success  has  attended  the  striv- 
ings of  the  adversary.  What  fierce  persecution 
has  rushed  against  the  righteous ;  how  often,  by 
one  engine  or  another,  has  there  been  almost  a 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  135 

thorough  extinction  of  the  very  name  of  Christi- 
anity ;  and  when  outwardly  there  has  been  peace, 
what  tares  have  been  sown  by  the  enemy,  and 
what  a  harvest  of  perilous  heresies  has  been  sent 
up.  But  he  has  done  nothing  more.  If  he  have 
hewn  down  thousands  by  the  sword,  and  con- 
sumed thousands  at  the  stake,  thousands  have 
sprung  forward  to  fill  up  the  breach ;  and  if  he 
have  succeeded  in  pouring  forth  a  flood  of  pesti- 
lential doctrine,  there  have  arisen  staunch  advo- 
cates of  truth,  who  have  stemmed  the  torrent, 
and  snatched  the  articles  of  faith,  uninjured,  from 
the  deluge.  There  has  never  been  the  time  when 
God  has  been  left  without  a  witness  upon  earth. 
And  though  the  church  has  often  been  sickly  and 
weak ;  though  the  best  blood  has  been  drained 
from  her  veins,  and  a  languor,  like  that  of  moral 
palsy,  has  settled  on  her  limbs  ;  still  life  hath 
never  been  wholly  extinguished ;  but  after  a 
while,  the  sinking  energies  have  been  marvel- 
ously  recruited,  and  the  worn  and  wasted  body 
has  risen  up  more  athletic  than  before,  an cT  dis- 
played to  the  nations  all  the  vigor  of  renovated 
youth. 

And  since,  up  to  the  second  advent  of  the 
Lord,  the  church  shall  be  beset  with  heresy,  and 
persecution,  and  infidelity,  we  look  not,  under 
the  present  dispensation,  for  discontinuance  of 
the  assaults  of  the  enemy.     The  church  may  be 


136  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

compelled  to  prophesy  in  sackcloth.  Affliction 
may  be  her  portion,  as  it  was  that  of  her  glori- 
fied Head.  But  she  is,  throughout,  God's  witness 
upon  earth.  She  is  God's  instrument  for  carry- 
ing on  those  purposes  which  shall  terminate  in 
the  final  setting  up  of  the  Mediator's  kingdom. 
And,  oh,  there  is  not  won  over  a  single  soul  to 
Christ,  and  the  Gospel  message  makes  not  its 
way  to  a  single  heart,  without  an  attendant  ef- 
fect as  of  a  stamping  on  the  head  of  the  tempter : 
for  a  captive  is  delivered  from  the  oppressor,  and 
to  deliver  the  slave  is  to  defeat  the  tyrant.  And 
whensoever  the  church,  as  an  engine  in  God's 
hands,  makes  a  successful  stand  for  piety  and 
truth;  whensoever,  sending  out  her  missionaries 
to  the  broad  waste  of  heathenism,  she  demolishes 
an  altar  of  superstition,  and  teaches  the  pagan  to 
cast  his  idols  to  the  mole  and  the  bat ;  or  when- 
soever, assaulting  mere  nominal  Christianity,  she 
fastens  men  to  practice  as  the  only  test  of  pro- 
fession ;  then  does  she  strike  a  blow  which  is 
felt  at  the  very  centre  of  the  kingdom  of  dark- 
ness, and  then  is  she  experiencing  a  partial  ful- 
fillment of  the  promise,  "  God  shall  bruise  Satan 
under  your  feet  shortly." 

And  when  the  fierce  and  on-going  conflict  shall 
be  brought  to  a  close  ;  when  this  burdened  crea- 
tion shall  have  shaken  off  the  slaves  and  the  ob- 
jects of  concupiscence,  and  the  church  of  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  137 

living  God  shall  reign,  with  its  Head,  over  the 
tribes  and  provinces  of  an  evangelized  earth ; 
then  in  the  completeness  of  the  triumph  of  right- 
eousness shall  by  the  completeness  of  Satan's 
discomfiture. 

66,  Salvation — its  greatness. 

Salvation  is  great  because  of  the  agency 
through  which  it  was  effected.  You  know  that 
the  Author  of  our  redemption  was  none  other 
than  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  who  had  covenanted 
from  the  first  to  become  the  surety  of  the  fallen. 
It  came  not  within  the  power  of  an  angel  to  make 
atonement  for  our  sins :  the  angelic  nature  might 
have  been  united  to  the  human,  but  there  would 
not  have  been  dignity  in  the  one  to  give  the  re- 
quired worth  to  the  sufferings  of  the  other.  So 
far  as  we  have  the  power  of  ascertaining,  it  would 
seem  that  no  being  but  the  Divine,  taking  to  him- 
self flesh,  could  have  satisfied  justice  in  the  stead 
of  fallen  men.  But  then  this  is  precisely  the  ar- 
rangement which  has  been  made  on  our  behalf. 
It  was  the  second  person  in  the  ever-blessed 
Trinity,  who,  compassionating  the  ruin  which 
transgression  had  brought  on  this  earth,  assumed 
our  nature,  exhausted  our  curse,  and  died  our 
death.  And  certainly,  if  there  be  an  aspect  under 
which  redemption  appears  great,  it  is  when  sur- 
veyed as  the  achievement  of  the  only  begotten 
12* 


138  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

of  the  Father.  The  majesty  of  the  agent  gives 
stupendousness  to  the  work,  and  causes  it  to  di- 
late till  it  far  exceeds  comprehension.  It  is  main- 
ly on  this  account  that  we  can  declare  even  ima- 
gination unable  to  increase  the  greatness  of  the 
arrangement  for  our  rescue.  This  arrangement 
demanded  that  God  himself  should  become  man, 
and  sustain  all  the  wrath  which  sin  had  provoked  ; 
and  what  can  be  imagined  more  amazing  than  the 
fact,  that  what  the  arrangement  demanded  lite- 
rally took  place  1  The  problem,  how  God  could 
be  just  and  yet  the  justifler  of  sinners,  baffled  all 
finite  intelligence,  because  a  divine  person  alone 
could  mediate  between  God  and  man ;  and  if 
created  wisdom  could  have  discovered  the  neces- 
sity, it  would  never  have  surmised  the  possibility. 
Now  certainly  that  which,  more  than  any  thing 
else,  rendered  humar\  redemption  insupposable, 
when  submitted  to  the  understanding  of  the  very 
highest  of  creatures,  must  be  confessed  to  be  also 
that  which  gives  a  sublime  awfulness  to  the  plan, 
and  invests  it  with  a  grandeur  which  increases  as 
we  gaze.  In  looking  at  the  cross,  and  considering 
that  our  sins  are  laid  upon  the  being  who  hangs 
there  in  weakness  and  ignominy,  the  overcoming 
thought  is,  that  this  being  is  none  other  than  the 
everlasting  God ;  and  that,  however  he  seems 
mastered  by  the  powers  of  wickedness,  he  could 
by  a  single  word,  uttered  from  the  tree  on  which 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  139 

he  immolates  himself,  scatter  the  universe  into 
nothing,  and  call  up  an  assemblage  of  new  worlds, 
and  new  systems.  This  makes  salvation  great — I 
shall  know  how  great,  when  I  can  measure  the 
distance  between  the  eternal  and  the  perishable, 
omnipotence  and  feebleness,  immortality  and 
death.  But  if  salvation  is  great,  because  the  Sa- 
viour is  Divine,  assuredly  the  greatness  of  salva- 
tion proves  the  peril  of  neglect.  To  neglect  the 
salvation  must  be  to  throw  scorn  on  the  Saviour. 
Oh,  if  it  give  an  unmeasured  vastness  to  the  work 
of  our  redemption,  that  he  who  undertook,  and 
carried  on,  and  completed  that  work,  was  "  the 
brightness  of  the  Father's  glory,  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person ;"  if  the  fact,  that  he  M  who 
bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree,"  was 
that  illustrious  being  "  for  whom  are  all  things, 
and  by  whom  are  all  things,"  magnify  our  rescue 
from  death  till  thought  itself  fails  to  overtake  its 
boundaries  ;  then  there  is  a  greatness  in  the  prof- 
fered deliverance,  derived  from  the  greatness  of 
the  deliverer,  which  proclaims  us  ruined  if  we 
treat  the  offer  with  contempt. 

67.  Christ  the  image  of  the  Invisible  God. 

We  know  it  to  be  said  of  Christ  by  St.  Paul, 
that  he  was  H  the  image  of  the  invisible  God." 
It  seems  to  us  that  the  sense,  in  which  Christ  is 
the  image,  is  akin  to  that  in  which  he  is  the  Word 


140  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

of  the  Almighty.  What  speech  is  to  thought, 
that  is  the  incarnate  Son  to  the  invisible  Father. 
Thought  is  a  viewless  thing.  It  can  traverse 
space,  and  run  to  and  fro  through  creation,  and 
pass  instantaneously  from  one  extreme  of  tne 
scale  of  being  to  the  other ;  and,  all  the  while, 
there  is  no  power  in  my  fellow-men  to  discern 
the  careerings  of  this  mysterious  agent.  But 
speech  is  manifested  thought.  It  is  though*  em- 
bodied ;  made  sensible,  and  palpable,  to  those 
who  could  not  apprehend  it  in  its  secret  and  si- 
lent expatiations.  And  precisely  what  speech 
thus  effects  in  regard  to  thought,  the  incarnate 
Son  effected  in  regard  to  the  invisible  Father. 
The  Son  is  the  manifested  Father,  and,  therefore, 
fitly  termed  "  the  Word :"  the  relation  between 
the  incarnate  Son  and  the  Father  being  accurate- 
ly that  between  speech  and  thought ;  the  one  ex- 
hibiting and  setting  forth  the  other.  It  is  in 
somewhat  of  a  similar  sense  that  Christ  may  be 
termed  "  the  image  of  the  invisible  God."  "  God 
is  a  Spirit."  Of  this  Spirit  the  creation  is  every 
where  full,  and  the  loneliest  and  most  seclud- 
ed spot  is  occupied  by  its  presence.  Never- 
theless, we  can  discern  little  of  the  universal  go- 
ings-forth  of  this  Deity.  There  are  works  above 
us,  and  around  us,  which  present  tokens  of  his 
wisdom  and  supremacy.  But  these,  after  all,  are 
only  feeble  manifestations  of  his  more  illustrious 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  141 

attributes.  Nay,  they  leave  those  attributes  well- 
nigh  wholly  unrevealed.  I  cannot  learn  God's 
holiness  from  the  stars  or  the  mountains.  I  can- 
not read  his  faithfulness  in  the  ocean  or  the  cata- 
ract. Even  his  wisdom,  and  power,  and  love,  are 
but  faintly  portrayed  in  the  torn  and  disjointed 
fragments  of  this  fallen  creation.  And  seeing, 
therefore,  that  Deity,  invisible  as  to  his  essence, 
can  become  visible  as  to  his  attributes,  only 
through  some  direct  manifestation  not  found  in 
his  material  workmanship,  God  sent  his  well-be- 
loved Son  to  assume  our  flesh ;  and  this  Son,  ex- 
hibiting in  and  through  his  humanity  as  much  of 
his  divine  properties  as  creatureship  could  admit, 
became  unto  mankind  "  the  image  of  the  invisible 
God."  He  did  not,  in  strict  matter-of-fact,  reveal 
to  mankind  that  there  is  a  God.  But  he  made 
known  to  them,  most  powerfully  and  most  abun- 
dantly, the  nature  and  attributes  of  God.  The 
beams  of  divinity,  passing  through  his  humanity 
as  through  a  softening  medium,  shone  upon  the 
earth  with  a  lustre  sufficiently  tempered  to  allow 
of  their  irradiating,  without  scorching  and  con- 
suming. And  they  who  gazed  on  this  mysterious 
person,  moving  in  his  purity,  and  his  benevolence, 
through  the  lines  of  a  depraved  and  scornful 
population,  saw  not  indeed  God — M  for  no  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time,"  and  spirit  must  ne- 
cessarily evade  the  search ings  of  sense — but  they 


142  BIBLE    THOUGHTS 

saw  God  imaged  with  the  most  thorough  fideli- 
ty, and  his  every  property  embodied,  so  far  as 
the  immaterial  can  discover  itself  through  the 
material. 

Now  we  think  you  can  scarcely  fail  to  perceive, 
that  if  you  detach  the  truth  of  the  being  of  a  God 
from  Jesus,  and  if  you  then  take  this  truth  M  as 
it  is  in  Jesus,"  the  difference  in  aspect  is  al- 
most a  difference  in  the  truth  itself.  Apart  from 
revelation,  I  can  believe  that  there  is  a  God.  I 
look  upon  the  wonder-workings  by  which  I  am 
encompassed ;  and  I  must  sacrifice  all  that  be- 
longs to  me  as  a  rational  creature,  if  I  espouse 
the  theory  that  chance  has  been  parent  to  the 
splendid  combinations.  But  what  can  be  more 
vague,  what  more  indefinite,  than  those  notions 
of  Deity  which  reason,  at  the  best,  is  capable  of 
forming  1  The  evil  which  is  mixed  with  good  in 
the  creation;  the  disordered  appearances  which 
seem  to  mark  the  absence  of  a  supreme  and  vigi- 
lant government ;  the  frequent  triumph  of  wick- 
edness, and  the  correspondent  depression  of 
virtue ;  these,  and  the  like  stern  and  undeniable 
mysteries,  will  perplex  me  in  every  attempt  to 
master  satisfactorily  the  Unity  of  Godhead.  But 
let  me  regard  Jesus  as  making  known  to  me 
God,  and  straightway  there  succeeds  a  calm  to 
my  confused  and  unsettled  imaginings.  He  tells 
me  by  his  words,  and  shows  me  by  his  actions. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  143 

that  all  tilings  are  at  the  disposal  of  one  eternal 
and  inscrutable  Creator.  Patting  forth  superhu- 
man ability  alike  in  the  bestowment  of  what  is 
good,  and  in  the  removal  of  what  is  evil,  he  fur- 
nishes me  with  the  strictest  demonstration  that 
there  are  not  two  principles  which  can  pretend 
to  hold  sway  in  the  universe ;  but  that  God,  a 
being  without  rival,  and  alone  in  his  majesties, 
created  whatsoever  is  good,  and  permitted  what- 
soever is  evil. 

68.  All  things  created  by  and  for  Christ. 

We  learn,  from  the  testimony  of  St.  Paul,  that 
**  all  things  were  created  by  Christ,  and  for 
Christ."  We  would  fix  attention  to  this  latter 
fact,  "  all  things  were  created  for  Christ."  We 
gather  from  this  fact  that  the  gorgeous  structure 
of  materialism,  spreading  interminably  above  us 
and  around  us,  is  nothing  more  than  an  august 
temple,  reared  for  consecration  to  the  Mediator's 
glory.  "  All  things  were  created  for  Christ." 
You  ask  me  why  God  spangled  the  firmament 
with  stars,  and  paved  with  worlds  the  expansions 
of  an  untraveled  immensity,  and  poured  forth 
the  rich  endowment  of  life  on  countless  myriads 
of  multiform  creatures.  And  I  tell  you,  thai,  if 
you  debar  me  from  acquaintance  with  "  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,"  I  may  give  you  in  reply 
some  brilliant  guess,  or  dazzling  conjecture,  but 


144  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

nothing  that  will  commend  itself  to  thoughtful 
and  well-disciplined  minds.  But  the  instant  that 
I  am  brought  into  contact  with  revelation,  and 
can  associate  creation  with  Christ,  as  alike  its 
author  and  object,  I  have  an  answer  which  is  al- 
together free  from  the  vagueness  of  speculation. 
I  can  tell  you  that  the  star  twinkles  not  on  the 
measureless  expanse,  and  that  the  creature  moves 
not  on  any  one  of  those  worlds  whose  number 
outruns  our  arithmetic,  which  hath  not  been  cre- 
ated for  the  manifestation  of  Christ's  glory,  and 
the  advancement  of  Christ's  purposes. 

69.  Chrisfs  Humiliation. 

There  was  an  act  of  humiliation,  such  as  mor- 
tal thought  cannot  compass,  in  the  coming  down 
of  Deity  and  his  tabernacling  in  flesh.  We  may 
well  exclaim,  wonder,  O  heavens,  and  be  aston- 
ished, O  earth,  when  we  remember  that  He  whom 
the  universe  cannot  contain  did,  literally,  conde- 
scend to  circumscribe  himself  within  the  form  of 
a  servant ;  and  that,  in  no  figure  of  speech,  but 
in  absolute,  though  mysterious  reality,  "  the 
Word  was  made  flesh,"  and  the  Son  of  the  High- 
est born  of  a  virgin.  We  shall  never  find  terms 
in  whidh  to  embody  even  our  own  conceptions 
of  this  unmeasured  humiliation ;  whilst  these  con- 
ceptions themselves  leave  altogether  unapproach- 
ed  the  boundary-lines  of  the  wonder.     Who  can 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  145 

"  by  searching  find  out  God  1"  Who,  then,  by 
striving  can  calculate  the  abasement  that  God 
should  become  man  ]  If  I  could  climb  to  Deity, 
I  might  know  what  it  was  for  Deity  to  descend 
into  dust.  But  forasmuch  as  God  is  inaccessible 
to  all  my  soarings,  it  can  never  come  within  the 
compass  of  my  imagination  to  tell  up  the  amount 
of  condescension ;  and  it  will  always  remain  a 
prodigy,  too  large  for  every  thing  but  faith,  that 
the  Creator  coalesced  with  the  creature,  and  so 
constituted  a  mediator, 

70.  Humanity  of  Christ. 

The  true  humanity  of  the  Son  of  God  is  as  fun- 
damental an  article  of  Christianity  as  his  true 
divinity.  You  would  as  effectually  demolish  our 
religion  by  proving  that  Christ  was  not  real  man, 
as  by  proving  that  Christ  was  not  real  God.  We 
must  have  a  mediator  between  God  and  man ;  and 
"  a  mediator  is  not  a  mediator  of  one,"  but  must 
partake  of  the  nature  of  each.  Shall  we  ever  he- 
sitate to  pronounce  it  the  comforting  and  sustain- 
ing thing  to  the  followers  of  Christ,  that  the  Re- 
deemer is,  in  the  strictest  sense,  their  kinsman? 
We  may  often  be  required,  in  the  exercise  of  the 
office  of  an  ambassador  from  God,  to  set  our- 
selves against  what  we  count  erroneous  doc- 
trines touching  the  humanity  of  the  Saviour.  But 
shall  it,  on  this  account,  be  supposed  that  we 
13 


146  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

either  underrate,  or  keep  out  of  sight,  this  mighty 
truth  of  Christianity,  that  the  Son  of  God  became 
as  truly,  and  as  literally,  man,  as  I  myself  am 
man  1  We  cannot,  and  we  will  not,  allow  that 
there  was  in  him  that  fountain  of  evil  which  there 
is  in  ourselves.  We  contend  that  the  absence  of 
the  fountain,  and  not  the  mere  prevention  of  the 
outbreak  of  its  waters,  is  indispensable  to  the 
constitution  of  such  purity  as  belonged  to  the 
holy  child  Jesus.  But  that  he  was  like  myself  in 
all  points,  my  sinfulness  only  excepted ;  that  his 
flesh,  like  mine,  could  be  lacerated  by  stripes, 
wasted  by  hunger,  and  torn  by  nails ;  that  his 
soul,  like  mine,  could  be  assaulted  by  temptation, 
harassed  by  Satan,  and  disquieted  under  the  hid- 
ings of  the  countenance  of  the  Father ;  that  he 
could  suffer  every  thing  which  I  can  suffer,  ex- 
cept the  remorse  of  a  guilty  conscience  ;  that  he 
could  weep  every  tear  which  I  can  weep,  except 
the  tear  of  repentance  ;  that  he  could  fear  with 
every  fear,  hope  with  every  hope,  and  joy  with 
every  joy,  which  I  may  entertain  as  a  man,  and 
not  be  ashamed  of  as  a  Christian ;  there  is  our 
creed  on  the  humanity  of  the  Mediator.  If  you 
could  once  prove  that  Christ  was  not  perfect 
man — bearing  always  in  mind  that  sinfulness  is 
not  essential  to  this  perfectness — there  would  be 
nothing  worth  contending  for  in  the  truth  that 
Christ  was  perfect  God :  the  only  one  who  can 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  147 

redeem  my  lost  heritage,  being  necessarily  my 
kinsman;  and  none  being  my  kinsman  who  is 
not  of  the  same  nature,  born  of  a  woman,  of  the 
substance  of  that  woman,  my  brother  in  ail  but 
rebellion,  myself  in  all  but  unholiness. 

71.  Poverty  of  Christ. 

We  are  told  that  Christ  "  emptied  himself,"  so 
that  fr  though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  he 
became  poor."  But  of  what  did  he  empty  him- 
self] Not  of  his  being,  not  of  his  nature,  not  of 
his  attributes.  It  must  be  blasphemous  to  speak 
of  properties  of  Godhead  as  laid  aside,  or  even 
suspended.  But  Christ  "  emptied  himself"  of  the 
glories,  and  the  majesties,  to  which  he  had  claim, 
and  which,  as  he  sat  on  the  throne  of  the  hea- 
vens, he  possessed  in  unmeasured  abundance. 
Whatsoever  he  was  as  to  nature  and  essence, 
whilst  appearing  amongst  the  angels  in  the  form 
of  God,  that  he  continued  to  be  still,  when,  in 
the  form  of  a  servant,  he  walked  the  scenes  of 
human  habitation.  But  then  the  glories  of  the 
form  of  God,  these  for  a  while  he  altogether 
abandoned.  If  indeed  he  had  appeared  upon 
earth — as,  according  to  the  dignity  of  his  nature, 
he  had  right  to  appear — in  the  majesty  and  glory 
of  the  Highest,  it  might  be  hard  to  understand 
what  riches  had  been  lost  by  divinity.  The  scene 
of  display  would  have  been  changed.     But  the 


14S  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

splendor  of  display  being  unshorn  and  undimin- 
ished, the  armies  of  the  sky  might  have  congre- 
gated round  the  Mediator,  and  have  given  in 
their  full  tale  of  homage  and  admiration.  But, 
oh,  it  was  poverty,  that  the  Creator  should  he 
moving  on  a  province  of  his  own  empire,  and 
yet  not  be  recognized  nor  confessed  by  his  crea- 
tures. It  was  poverty,  that,  when  he  walked 
amongst  men,  scattering  blessings  as  he  trode, 
the  anthem  of  praise  floated  not  around  him,  and 
the  air  was  often  burdened  with  the  curse  and 
the  blasphemy.  It  was  poverty,  that,  as  he 
passed  to  and  fro  through  tribes  whom  he  had 
made,  and  whom  he  had  come  down  to  redeem, 
scarce  a  solitary  voice  called  him  blessed, 
scarce  a  solitary  hand  was  stretched  out  in  friend- 
ship, and  scarce  a  solitary  roof  ever  proffered 
him  shelter.  And  when  you  contrast  this  deep 
and  desolate  poverty  with  that  exuberant  wealth 
which  had  been  always  his  own,  whilst  heaven 
continued  the  scene  of  his  manifestations — the 
wealth  of  the  anthem-peal  of  ecstasy  from  a  mil- 
lion rich  voices,  and  of  the  solemn  bowing-down 
of  sparkling  multitudes,  and  of  the  glowing  ho- 
mage of  immortal  hierarchies,  whensoever  he 
showed  forth  his  power  or  his  purposes — ye  can- 
not fail  to  perceive,  that,  in  taking  upon  him  flesh, 
the  Eternal  Son  descended,  most  literally,  from 
abundance  to  want ;  and  that,  though  he  contiu- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  l49 

wed  just  as  mighty  as  before,  just  as  infinitely 
gifted  with  all  the  stores  and  resources  of  essen- 
tial Divinity,  the  transition  was  so  total,  from 
the  reaping-in  of  glory  from  the  whole  field  of  the 
universe  to  the  receiving,  comparatively,  nothing 
of  his  revenues  of  honor,  that  we  may  assert, 
without  reserve,  and  without  figure,  that  he  who 
was  rich,  for  our  sakes  became  poor.  v  In  the 
form  of  God,"  he  had  acted,  as  it  were,  visibly, 
amid  the  enraptured  plaudits  of  angel  and  arch- 
angel, cherubim  and  seraphim.  But  now,  in  the 
form  of  man,  he  must  be  withdrawn  from  the  de- 
lighted inspections  of  the  occupants  of  heaven, 
and  act,  as  powerfully  indeed  as  before,  but  mys- 
teriously and  invisibly,  behind  a  dark  curtain  of 
flesh,  and  on  the  dreary  platform  of  a  sin-burden- 
ed territory.  So  that  the  antithesis,  "  the  form 
of  God,"  and  M  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,"  marks 
accurately  the  change  to  which  the  Mediator  sub- 
mitted. And  thus,  whilst  there  is  no  impeach- 
ment, in  the  phrase,  of  the  reality  of  Christ's  hu- 
manity, we  now  extract  from  the  description  a 
clear  witness  to  the  divinity  of  Jesus ;  and  show 
you  that  a  form  of  speech  which  seems,  at  first 
sight,  vague  and  indefinite,  was,  if  not  rendered 
unavoidable,  yet  readily  dictated,  by  the  union  of 
natures  in  the  person  of  the  Redeemer. 


13* 


150  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

72.  Christ  our  pattern  in  humility. 

We  press  on  you  the  exhortation  of  St.  Paul : 
\*  Let  this  mind  he  in  you  which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus."  He  died  to  make  atonement,  but 
he  died  also  to  set  a  pattern.  Shall  selfishness 
find  patrons  among  you  when  you  have  gazed  on 
this  example  of  disinterestedness!  Shall  pride 
be  harbored,  after  you  have  seen  Deity  humbling 
himself,  and  then,  as  man,  abasing  himself,  till 
there  was  no  lower  point  to  which  he  could  de- 
scend %  And  all  this  for  us  ;  for  you,  for  me  ;  for 
the  vile,  for  the  reprobate,  for  the  lost !  And  what 
return  do  we  make,  alas !  for  the  neglect,  the 
contempt,  the  coldness,  the  formality,  which  he 
who  humbled  himself,  and  agonized,  and  died  the 
death  of  shame  on  our  behalf,  receives  at  our 
hands'?  Which  of  us  is  faithfully  taking  pattern  1 
Which  of  us,  I  do  not  say,  has  mastered  and  eject- 
ed pride,  but  is  setting  himself  in  good  earnest, 
and  with  all  the  energy  which  might  be  brought 
to  the  work,  to  the  wrestling  with  pride  and 
sweeping  it  from  the  breast  1  Would  to  God  that 
the  doctrine,  which  is  the  alone  engine  against 
the  haughtiness  and  self-sufficiency  of  the  fallen, 
that  the  Mediator  between  earth  and  heaven  was 
u  perfect  God  and  perfect  man,"  may  be  deeply 
written  on  our  hearts.  There  must  be  Deity  in 
the  rock  which  could  bear  up  a  foundered  world. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  151 

May  none  of  you  forget  this.  The  young  more 
especially,  keep  ye  this  diligently  in  mind.  I  have 
lived  much  amid  the  choicest  assemblies  of  the 
literary  youth  of  our  land,  and  I  know  full  well 
how  commonly  the  pride  of  talent,  or  the  ap- 
petite for  novelty,  or  the  desire  to  be  singular, 
or  the  aversidh  from  what  is  holy,  will  cause  an 
unstable  mind  to  yield  itself  to  the  specious  so- 
phistry, or  the  licentious  effrontery,  of  sceptical 
writings.  I  pray  God  that  none  of  you  be  drawn 
within  the  eddies  of  that  whirlpool  of  infidelity 
which  rends  into  a  thousand  shivers  the  noblest 
barks,  freighted  with  a  rich  lading  of  intellect 
and  learning.  Be  ye  watchful  alike  against  the 
dogmas  of  an  insolent  reasoning,  and  the  siren 
strains  of  a  voluptuous  poetry,  and  the  fiendlike 
sneers  of  reprobate  men,  and  the  polished  cavils 
of  fashionable  contempt.  Let  none  of  these  se- 
duce or  scare  you  from  the  simplicity  of  the  faith. 

73.  Purity  of  Chrisfs  character  the  cause  of 
his  rejection. 

He  was  born  pure,  and  with  a  native  hatred 
of  sin ;  but  then  he  had  been  miraculously  gene- 
rated, in  order  that  his  nature  might  be  thus  hos- 
tile to  evil.  And  never  did  there  move  the  being 
on  this  earth  who  hated  sin  with  as  perfect  a  ha- 
tred, or  who  was  as  odious  in  return  to  all  the 


152  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

emissaries  of  darkness.  It  was  just  the  holiness 
of  the  Mediator  which  stirred  up  against  him  all 
the  passions  of  a  profligate  world,  and  provoked 
that  fury  of  assault  which  rushed  in  from  the 
hosts  of  reprobate  spirits.  There  was  thrown  a 
perpetual  reproach  on  a  proud  and  sensual  gene- 
ration, by  the  spotlessness  of  that  righteous  indi- 
vidual, "  who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found 
in  his  mouth."  And  if  he  had  not  been  so  far  se- 
parated, by  the  purities  of  life  and  conversation, 
from  all  others  of  his  nature ;  or  if  vice  had  re- 
ceived a  somewhat  less  tremendous  rebuke  from 
the  blamelessness  of  his  every  action ;  we  may 
be  sure  that  his  might  and  benevolence  would 
have  gathered  the  nation  to  his  discipleship,  and 
that  the  multitude  would  never  have  been  worked 
up  to  demand  his  crucifixion. 

The  great  secret  of  the  opposition  to  Christ  lay 
in  the  fact,  that  he  was  not  such  an  one  as  our- 
selves. We  are  accustomed  to  think  that  the  low- 
liness of  his  condition,  and  the  want  of  external 
majesty  and  pomp,  moved  the  Jews  to  reject  their 
Messiah :  yet  it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  these 
were,  in  the  main,  the  producing  causes  of  rejec- 
tion. If  Christ  came  not  with  the  purple  and  cir- 
cumstance of  human  sovereignty,  he  displayed 
the  possession  of  a  supernatural  power,  which, 
even  on  the  most  carnal  calculation,  was  more 
valuable,  because  more  effective,  than  all  the  ap- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  153 

paratus  of  earthly  supremacy.  The  peasant,  who 
could  work  the  miracles  which  Christ  worked, 
would  be  admitted,  on  all  hands,  to  have  mightier 
engines  at  his  disposal  than  the  prince  who  is 
clothed  with  the  ermine  and  followed  by  the 
warriors.  And  if  the  Jews  looked  for  a  Messiah 
who  would  lead  them  to  mastery  over  enemies, 
then,  we  contend,  there  was  every  thing  in  Christ 
to  induce  them  to  give  him  their  allegiance.  The 
power  which  could  vanquish  death  by  a  word, 
might  cause  hosts  to  fall,  as  fell  the  hosts  of  Sen- 
nacherib ;  and  where  then  was  the  foe  who  could 
have  resisted  the  leader  1 

We  cannot,  therefore,  think  that  it  was  merely 
the  absence  of  human  pageantry  which  moved  the 
great  ones  of  Judea  to  throw  scorn  upon  Jesus. 
It  is  true,  they  were  expecting  an  earthly  deliv- 
erer. But  Christ  displayed  precisely  those  pow- 
ers, which,  wielded  by  Moses,  had  prevailed  to 
deliver  their  nation  from  Egypt ;  and  assuredly 
then,  if  that  strength  dwelt  in  Jesus  which  had 
discomfited  Pharaoh,  and  broken  the  thraldom  of 
centuries,  it  could  not  have  been  the  proved  in- 
capacity of  effecting  temporal  deliverance  which 
induced  pharisees  and  scribes  to  reject  their  Mes- 
siah. They  could  have  tolerated  the  meanness 
of  his  parentage ;  for  that  was  more  than  com- 
pensated by  the  majesty  of  his  power.  They 
could  have  endured  the  lowliness  of  his  appear- 


154  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

ance ;  for  they  could  set  against  it  his  evident 
communion  with  divinity. 

But  the  righteous  fervor  with  which  Christ  de- 
nounced every  abomination  in  the  land ;  the  un- 
tainted purity  by  which  he  shamed  the  "  whited 
sepulchres  "  who  deceived  the  people  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  sanctity ;  the  rich  loveliness  of  a 
character  in  which  zeal  for  God's  glory  was  un- 
ceasingly uppermost ;  the  beautiful  lustre  which 
encompassed  a  being  who  could  hate  only  one 
thing,  but  that  one  thing  sin  ;  these  were  the  pro- 
ducing causes  of  bitter  hostility ;  and  they  who 
would  have  hailed  the  wonder-worker  with  the 
shout  and  the  plaudit,  had  he  allowed  some  li- 
cense to  the  evil  passions  of  our  nature,  gave 
him  nothing  but  the  sneer  and  the  execration, 
when  he  waged  open  war  with  lust  and  hy- 
pocrisy. 

74.  Christ  humbling  himself  to  the  death  of 
the  Cross. 

We  may  assert,  that  in  Christ's  humanity,  as 
in  our  own,  there  was  a  tendency  to  dissolution ; 
a  tendency  resulting  from  entailed  infirmities 
which  were  innocent,  but  in  no  degree  from  sin- 
fulness, whether  derived  or  contracted.  But  as 
the  second  person  in  the  Trinity,  the  Lord  of 
life  and  glory,  Christ  Jesus  possessed  an  unlimit- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  155 

ed  control  over  this  tendency,  and  might,  had  he 
pleased,  for  ever  have  suspended,  or  for  ever 
have  counteracted  it.  And  herein  lay  the  alleged 
act  of  humility.  Christ  was  unquestionably  mor- 
tal ;  otherwise  it  is  most  clear  that  he  could  not 
have  died  at  all.  But  it  is  to  the  full  as  unques- 
tionable that  he  must  have  been  more  than  mor- 
tal 5  otherwise  death  was  unavoidable  ;  and  where 
can  be  the  humility  of  submitting  to  that  which 
we  have  no  power  of  avoiding  1  As  mere  man, 
he  was  mortal.  But  then  as  God,  the  well-spring 
of  life  to  the  population  of  the  universe,  he  could 
for  ever  have  withstood  the  advances  of  death, 
and  have  refused  it  dominion  in  his  own  divine 
person.  But  "  he  humbled  himself."  In  order  that 
there  might  come  down  upon  him  the  fullness  of 
the  wrath-cup,  and  that  he  might  exhaust  the 
penalties  which  rolled,  like  a  sea  of  fire,  between 
earth  and  heaven,  he  allowed  scope  to  that  liable- 
ness  to  death  which  he  might  for  ever  have  ar- 
rested ;  and  died,  not  through  any  necessity,  but 
through  the  act  of  his  own  will ;  died,  inasmuch 
as  his  humanity  was  mortal ;  died  voluntarily,  in- 
asmuch as  his  person  was  divine. 

And  this  was  humility.  If,  on  becoming  man, 
he  had  ceased  to  be  God,  there  would  have  been 
no  humility  in  his  death.  He  would  only  have 
submitted  to  what  he  could  not  have  declined. 
But  since,  on   becoming  what  he  was   not,  he 


156  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ceased  not  to  be  what  he  was,  he  brought  down 
into  the  fashion  of  man  all  the  life-giving  ener- 
gies which  appertained  to  him  as  God ;  and  he 
stood  on  the  earth,  the  wondrous  combination 
of  two  natures  in  one  person  ;  the  one  nature  in- 
firm and  tending  to  decay,  the  other  self-existent, 
and  the  source  of  all  being  throughout  a  crowd- 
ed immensity. 

And  the  one  nature  might  have  eternally  kept 
up  the  other  ;  and,  withstanding  the  inroads  of  dis- 
ease, and  pouring  in  fresh  supplies  of  vitality, 
have  given  undecaying  vigor  to  the  mortal,  per- 
petual youth  to  the  corruptible.  But  how  then 
could  the  Scriptures  have  been  fulfilled  ;  and 
where  would  have  been  the  expiation  for  the  sins 
of  a  burdened  and  groaning  creation  %  It  was  an 
act  of  humility — the  tongue,  we  have  told  you, 
cannot  express  it,  and  the  thought  cannot  com- 
pass it — that,  "  for  us  men  and  for  our  salva- 
tion," the  Eternal  Word  consented  to  be  M  made 
flesh."  God  became  man.  It  was  stupendous 
humility.  But  he  was  not  yet  low  enough.  The 
man  must  humble  himself,  humble  himself  even 
unto  death  ;  for  "  without  shedding  of  blood  is 
no  remission."  And  he  did  humble  himse]f. 
Death  was  avoidable,  but  he  submitted ;  the 
grave  might  have  been  overstepped,  but  he 
entered. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  157 

75.  Christ's  Victory  over  Satan. 

There  was  not  an  iota  of  his  sufferings  which 
went  not  towards  liquidating  the  vast  debt  which 
man  owed  to  God,  and  which,  therefore,  contribu- 
ted not  to  our  redemption  from  bondage.  There 
was  not  a  pang  by  which  the  Mediator  was  torn, 
and  not  a  grief  by  which  his  soul  was  disquieted, 
which  helped  not  on  the  achievement  of  human 
deliverance,  and  which,  therefore,  dealt  not  out 
a  blow  to  the  despotism  of  Satan.  In  prevailing, 
so  far  as  he  did  prevail^  against  Christ,  Satan 
was  only  effecting  his  own  discomfiture  and 
downfall.  He  touched  the  heel,  he  could  not 
touch  the  head  of  the  Mediator.  If  he  could 
have  seduced  him  into  the  commission  of  evil ; 
if  he  could  have  profaned,  by  a  solitary  thought, 
the  sanctuary  of  his  soul ;  then  it  would  have 
been  the  head  which  he  had  bruised  ;  and  rising 
triumphant  over  man's  surety,  he  would  have 
shouted,  H  Victory  !"  and  this  creation  have  be- 
come for  ever  his  own.  But  whilst  he  could  only 
cause  pain,  and  not  pollution;  whilst;  he  could 
dislocate  by  agony,  but  not  defile  by  imparity  ; 
he  reached  indeed  the  heel,  but  came  not  near 
the  head ;  and,  making  the  Saviour's  life-time 
one  dark  series  of  afflictions,  weakened,  at  every 
step,  his  own  hold  upon  humanity. 

And  when,  at  last,  he  so  bruised  the  heel  as 
to  nail  Christ  to  the  cross  amid  the  loathings 
U 


158 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 


and  revilings  of  the  multitude,  then  it  was  that 
his  own  head  was  bruised,  even  to  the  being 
crushed.  "  Through  death,"  we  are  told,  "  Christ 
Jesus  destroyed  him  that  had  the  power  of  death, 
that  is,  the  devil."  He  fell  indeed  ;  and  evil  an- 
gels, and  evil  men,  might  have  thought  him  for 
ever  defeated.  But  in  grasping  this  mighty  prey, 
death  paralyzed  itself;  in  breaking  down  the 
temple,  Satan  demolished  his  own  throne.  It 
was  by  dying,  that  Christ  finished  the  achieve- 
ment which,  from  all  eternity,  he  had  covenant- 
ed to  undertake.  By  dying,  he  reinstated  fallen 
man  in  the  position  from  which  he  had  been 
hurled.  Death  came  against  the  Mediator ;  and 
when  he  had  died,  and  descended  into  the  grave, 
and  returned  without  seeing  corruption,  then 
was  it  made  possible  that  every  child  of  Adam 
might  be  emancipated  from  the  dominion  of  evil ; 
and,  in  place  of  the  wo  and  the  shame  which 
transgression  had  won  as  the  heritage  of  man, 
there  was  the  beautiful  brightness  of  a  purchased 
immortality  wooing  the  acceptance  of  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  our  race.  The  strong  man 
armed  had  kept  his  goods  in  peace  ;  and  Satan, 
having  seduced  men  to  be  his  companions  in  re- 
bellion, might  have  felt  secure  of  having  them  as 
his  companions  in  torment.  But  the  stronger 
than  he  drew  nigh,  and,  measuring  weapons  with 
him  in  the  garden  and  on  the  cross,  received 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  159 

wounds  which  were  but  trophies  of  victory,  and 
dealt  wounds  which  annihilated  power.  And 
when  bruised  indeed,  yet  only  marked  with  ho- 
norable scars  which  told  out  his  triumph  to  the 
loftiest  orders  of  intelligent  being,  the  Redeemer 
of  mankind  soared  on  high,  and  sent  proclama- 
tion through  the  universe,  that  death  was  abol- 
ished, and  the  ruined  redeemed,  and  the  gates 
of  heaven  thrown  open  to  the  rebel  and  the  out- 
cast, was  there  not  an  accomplishment,  the  most 
literal  and  the  most  energetic,  of  that  prediction, 
which  declared  to  Satan  concerning  the  seed  of 
the  woman,  e<  it  shall  bruise  thy  head  and  thou 
shalt  bruise  his  heel!" 

76.    Christ  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life. 

In  announcing  himself  as  "  the  resurrection," 
Christ  must  be  considered  as  stating  that  he  alone 
effects  the  wondrous  result  of  the  corruptible  put- 
ting on  incorruption.  In  announcing  himself  as 
"  the  life,"  he  equally  states  that  he  endows  the 
spirit  with  its  happiness,  yea  rather  with  its  exist- 
ence, through  eternity.  If  Christ  had  only  termed 
himself  "  the  resurrection,"  we  might  have  con- 
sidered him  as  referring  merely  to  the  body — as- 
serting it  to  be  a  consequence  on  his  work  of  me- 
diation that  the  dust  of  ages  shall  again  quicken 
into  life.  But  when  He  terms  ^himself  also  "the 
life,"  we  cannot  but  suppose  a  reference  to  the 


160  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

immortality  of  the  soul,  so  that  this  noble  and 
sublime  fact  is,  in  some  way,  associated  with  the 
achievements  of  redemption. 

77.     Intercessor  ship  of  Christ* 

You  must,  we  think,  be  familiar,  through  fre- 
quent hearing,  with  the  offices  of  Christ  as  our 
Intercessor.  You  know  that  though  he  suffered 
but  once,  in  the  last  ages  of  the  world,  yet,  ever 
living  to  plead  the  merits  of  his  sacrifice,  he  gives 
perpetuity  to  the  oblation,  and  applies  to  the  wash- 
ing away  of  sin  that  blood  which  is  as  expiatory 
as  in  its  first  warm  gushings.  In  no  respect  is  it 
more  sublimely  true  than  in  this,  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  "the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever." 
The  high  priests  of  Aaron's  line  entered,  year  by 
year,  into  the  holiest  of  all,  making  continually  a 
new  atonement  "  for  themselves  and  for  the  errors 
of  the  people."  But  he  who  was  constituted  "  after 
the  order  of  Melchisedec,"  king  as  well  as  priest, 
entered  in  once,  not  "  by  the  blood  of  goats  and 
calves,  but  by  his  own  blood,"  and  needed  never 
to  return  and  ascend  again  the  altar  of  sacrifice. 
It  is  not  that  sin  can  now  be  taken  away  by  any 
thing  short  of  shedding  of  blood.  But  intercession 
perpetuates  crucifixion. 

We  wish  you  to  understand  thoroughly  the  na- 
ture of  Christ's  intercession.  When  Rome  had 
thrown  from  her  the  warrior  who  had  led  his  coun- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  161 

trymen  to  victory,  and  galled  and  fretted  the  proud 
spirit  of  her  boldest  hero ;  he,  driven  onward  by 
the  demon  of  revenge,  gave  himself  as  a  leader 
where  he  had  before  been  a  conqueror,  and,  taking 
a  hostile  banner  into  his  passionate  grasp,  headed 
the  foes  who  sought  to  subjugate  the  land  of  his 
nativity.  Ye  remember,  it  may  be,  how  interces- 
sion saved  the  city.  The  mother  bowed  before 
the  son  ;  and  Coriolanus,  vanquished  by  tears,  sub- 
dued by  plaints,  left  the  capitol  unscathed  by  bat- 
tle. Here  is  a  precise  instance  of  what  men  count 
successful  intercession.  But  there  is  no  analogy 
between  this  intercession,  and  the  intercession  of 
Christ.  Christ  intercedes  with  justice,  proffering 
his  atonement  to  satisfy  the  demand.  Oh,  it  is 
not  the  intercession  of  burning  tears,  nor  of  half- 
choked  utterance,  nor  of  thrilling  speech.  It  is 
the  intercession  of  a  broken  body,  and  of  gushing 
blood — of  death,  of  passion,  of  obedience.  It  is 
the  intercession  of  a  giant  leaping  into  the  gap, 
and  filling  it  with  his  colossal  stature,  and  cover- 
ing, as  with  a  rampart  of  flesh,  the  defenceless 
camp  of  the  outcasts.  So  that,  not  by  the  touch- 
ing words  and  gestures  of  supplication,  but  by  the 
resistless  deeds  and  victories  of  Calvary,  the  Cap- 
tain of  our  salvation  intercedes :  pleading,  not  as 
a  petitioner  who  would  move  compassion,  but  ra- 
ther as  a  conqueror  who  would  claim  his  trophies. 
Hence  Christ  is  "  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost/' 
14* 


162  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

on  the  very  ground  that f  r  he  ever  liveth  to  make  in* 
tercession ;"  seeing  that  no  sin  can  be  committed 
for  which  the  satisfaction,  made  upon  Calvary^ 
proffers  not  an  immediate  and  thorough  expiation. 
And  as  the  intercessor,  or  advocate,  of  his  people, 
Christ  Jesus  may  be  said  to  stand  continually  at 
the  altar-side  momentarily  offering  up  the  sacrifice 
which  is  momentarily  required  by  their  fast-recur- 
ring guilt.  Though  the  shadows  of  Jewish  worship 
have  been  swept  away,  so  that,  day  by  day,  and 
year  by  year,  a  typical  atonement  is  no  longer  to 
be  made,  the  constant  commission  of  sin  demands 
the  constant  pouring  out  of  blood;  and  standing 
not  indeed  in  a  material  court,  and  offering  not  the 
legal  victims,  but,  nevertheless,  officiating  in  the 
presence  of  God,  "  a  lamb  as  it  had  been  slain," 
the  Kedeemer  presents  the  oblation  prescribed  for 
every  offence  and  every  short-coming. 

78.  Christ  both  Redeemer  and  Judge, 
It  is,  we  think,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
arrangements  which  characterize  the  Gospel,  that 
the  offices  of  Redeemer  and  Judge  meet  in  the 
same  person,  and  that  person  divine.  We  call  it 
a  beautiful  arrangement,  because  securing  for  us 
tenderness  as  well  as  equity,  the  sympathies  of  a 
friend,  as  well  as  the  disinterestedness  of  a  most 
righteous  arbiter.  Had  the  judge  been  only  man, 
the  imperfection  of  his  nature  would  have  made 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  163 

ug  expect  much  of  error  in  his  verdicts.  Had  he 
been  only  God,  the  distance  between  him  and  us 
would  have  made  us  fear  it  impossible,  that,  in  de- 
termining our  lot,  he  would  take  into  account  our 
feebleness  and  trials.  But  in  the  person  of  Christ 
there  is  that  marvellous  combination  which  we 
seek  in  the  Judge  of  the  whole  human  race.  He  is 
God,  and,  therefore,  must  he  know  every  particu- 
lar of  character.  But  he  is  also  man,  and,  there- 
fore, can  he  put  himself  into  the  position  of  those 
who  are  brought  to  his  bar.  And  because  the 
Judge  is  thus  the  Mediator^  the  judgment-seat 
can  be  approached  with  confidence  and  gladness. 
The  believer  in  Christ,  who  hearkened  to  the 
suggestions  of  God's  Spirit,  and  brake  away  from 
the  trammels  of  sin,  shall  know  the  Son  of  man, 
as  he  comes  down  in  the  magnificent  sternness 
of  celestial  authority.  And  we  say  not  that  it  shall 
be  altogether  without  dread,  or  apprehension,  that 
the  righteous,  starting  from  the  sleep  of  death, 
shall  hear  the  deepening  roll  of  the  archangel's 
summons,  and  behold  the  terrific  pomp  of  heavenly 
judicature.  But  we  are  certain  that  they  will  be 
assured  and  comforted,  as  they  gaze  upon  their 
Judge,  and  recognize  their  surety.  Words  such 
as  these  will  occur  to  them,  "  God  hath  appointed 
a  day  in  the  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness  by  that  man  whom  he  hath  ordain- 
ed."  "  By  that  man."   The  man  who  "  hath  borne 


164  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

our  griefs,  and  carried  our  sorrows."  The  man 
who  uttered  the  pathetic  words,  "  O  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  together."  The  man  who  was  "delivered 
for  our  offences,  and  raised  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion." The  man  who  sat  in  weariness  hy  the  well 
of  Samaria ;  the  man  who  wept  in  anguish  at  the 
grave  of  Lazarus ;  the  man  who  compassionated 
the  weakness  of  his  slumbering  disciples ;  the  man 
whose  "sweat  was  as  it  were  great  drops  of  blood," 
and  who  submitted  to  be  scourged,  and  buffeted, 
and  crucified,  "  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation." 
Yes,  this  is  the  very  being  who  is  to  gather  the 
nations  before  him,  and  determine  the  everlasting 
condition  of  each  individual.  And  though  we  dare 
not  attempt  to  define  the  motions  of  those  most 
assured  of  deliverance,  when  standing,  in  their 
resurrection-bodies,  on  the  earth,  as  it  heaves  with 
strange  convulsions,  and  looking  on  a  firmament 
lined  with  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  angels, 
and  beholding  a  throne  of  fire  and  cloud,  such  as 
was  never  piled  for  mortal  sovereignty,  and  hear- 
ing sounds  of  which  even  imagination  cannot  catch 
the  echo — yet  is  it  enough  to  assure  us  that  they 
will  be  full  of  hope  and  of  gladness,  to  tell  us  that 
he  who  will  speak  to  them  is  he  who  once  died  for 
them.  Oh,  there  will  be  peace  to  the  righteous, 
when  f*  the  heavens  shall  be  rolled  together  as  a 
scroll,"  if  it  be  Christ  who  saith,  "  the  hour  is 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  165 

coming,  in  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall 
hear  my  voice." 

But  with  what  feelings  will  those  hear  the  voice, 
of  whom  the  Saviour  may  affirm,  "  I  have  called, 
and  ye  refused  ;  ye  have  set  at  naught  all  my 
counsel,  and  would  none  of  my  reproof]"  They, 
too,  shall  know  the  voice ;  and  it  shall  be  to  them 
as  the  voice  of  despised  mercy,  the  voice  of  slight- 
ed love.  They  shall  be  more  startled,  and  more 
pierced,  and  more  lacerated,  by  that  voice,  than 
if  it  had  never  before  been  heard,  or  if  its  tones 
were  not  remembered.  The  sound  of  that  voice 
will  at  once  waken  the  memory  of  warnings  that 
have  been  neglected,  invitations  refused,  privi- 
leges unimproved.  It  will  be  painfully  eloquent 
of  all  that  was  vainly  done  to  win  them  to  repent- 
ance, and  therefore  terribly  reproachful,  ominous 
of  a  doom  which  it  is  now  too  late  to  avert.  They 
would  have  more  hope,  they  would  be  less  beaten 
down  by  a  conciousness  that  they  were  about  to 
enter  on  everlasting  misery,  if  a  strange  voice  had 
summoned  them  from  the  tomb,  a  voice  as  of  many 
thunderings,  a  voice  that  had  never  spoken  tender- 
ly and  plaintively,  never  uttered  the  earnest  be- 
seechings,  the  touching  entreaties  of  a  friend,  a 
brother,  a  Redeemer.  Any  voice  rather  than  this 
voice.  None  could  be  so  dirge-like,  so  full  of 
condemnation,  so  burdened  with  malediction,  as 
that  which  had  often  said,  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for 
why  will  ye  die  V* 


166  BIBI,E    THOUGHTS. 

But  this  is  the  voice ;  and  when  this  voice  is 
heard,  "  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  come  forth." 
And  under  how  many  divisions  shall  the  swarming 
myriads  be  arranged  1  They  have  had  very  differ- 
ent opportunities  and  means,  and  you  might  have 
expected  them  to  be  separated  into  a  great  variety 
of  classes.  But  we  read  of  only  one  division,  of 
only  two  classes.  "  They  that  have  done  good 
unto  the  resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that  have 
done  evil  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation." 

And  what  say  you  to  all  this  1  If  we  could  es- 
cape the  judgment,  or  if  we  could  bribe  the  Judge  ; 
if  we  had  the  bone  of  iron,  and  the  sinew  of  brass, 
and  the  flesh  of  marble,  so  that  we  might  defy  the 
fire  and  the  worm,  why,  then,  we  might  eat  and 
drink,  and  amass  gold,  and  gratify  lust.  But  the 
judgment  is  not  to  be  escaped — the  very  dead  are 
to  hear  the  voice,  and  who  then  can  hide  himself  I 
And  the  Judge  is  not  to  be  bribed  ;  it  is  the  eternal 
God  himself,  whose  are  the  worlds,  and  all  which 
they  contain.  And  we  are  sensitive  beings,  be- 
ings with  vast  capacities  for  wretchedness,  pre- 
senting unnumbered  inlets  to  a  ministry  of  ven- 
geance— shall  we  then,  in  spite  of  all  this,  persist 
in  neglecting  the  great  salvation  1 

79.     Mediatorial  Kingdom  of  Christ. 

You  cannot  be  acquainted  with  the  scheme  of 
our  redemption,  and  not  know  that  the  office 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  167 

of  Mediator  warrants  our  supposing  a  kingdom 
which  will  be  finally  surrendered.  The  grand  de- 
sign of  redemption  has  all  along  been  the  exter- 
minating of  evil  from  the  universe,  and  the  restor- 
ing of  harmony  throughout  God's  disorganized 
empire.  We  know  that  God  made  every  thing 
good,  and  that  the  creation,  whether  animate  or 
inanimate,  as  it  rose  from  his  hands,  presented  no 
trace  of  imperfection  or  pollution.  But  evil  myste- 
riously gained  entrance,  and  originating  in  heaven, 
spread  rapidly  to  earth.  And  henceforwards  it 
was  the  main  purpose  of  the  Almighty  to  counter- 
act evil,  to  obliterate  the  stains  from  his  work- 
manship, and  to  reinstate  and  confirm  the  universe 
in  its  original  purity.  To  effect  this  purpose,  his 
own  Son,  equal  with  himself  in  all  the  attributes 
of  Godhead,  undertook  to  assume  human  nature  ; 
and  to  accomplish,  in  working  out  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  an  alienated  tribe,  results  which  should  ex- 
tend themselves  to  every  department  of  creation. 
He  was  not  indeed  fully  and  visibly  invested  with 
the  kingly  office  until  after  his  death  and  resur- 
rection ;  for  then  it  was  that  he  declared  to  his 
disciples,  *?  all  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 
and  earth."  Nevertheless  the  Mediatorial  kingdom 
had  commenced  with  the  commencement  of  hu- 
man guilt  and  misery.  For,  so  soon  as  man  re- 
belled, Christ  interfered  on  his  behalf,  and  assum- 
ed the  office  of  his  surety  and  deliverer.   He  un- 


168  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

dertook  the  combat  with  the  powers  of  evil,  and 
fought  his  first  battle.  And  afterwards  all  God's 
intercourse  with  the  world  was  carried  on  through 
the  Mediator — Christ  appearing  in  human  form  to 
patriarchs  and  saints,  and  superintending  the  con- 
cerns of  our  race  with  distinct  reference  to  the 
good  of  his  church. 

But  when,  through  death,  he  had  destroyed 
M  him  that  had  the  power  of  death, "  the  Mediator 
became  emphatically  a  king.  He  "  ascended  up  on 
high,  and  led  captivity  captive  "  in  that  very  nature 
in  which  he  had  "borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our 
sorrows."  He  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God, 
the  very  person  that  had  been  made  a  curse  for 
us ;  and  there  was  "  given  him  a  name  which  is 
above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus 
every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and 
things  on  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth." 
And  ever  since  he  hath  been  M  head  over  all  things 
to  the  church ;"  and  God  has  so  delegated  his  pow- 
er to  the  Mediator,  that  this  Mediator  has  M  the 
keys  of  hell  and  of  death,"  and  so  rules  human 
affairs  as  to  make  way  for  a  grand  consummation 
which  creation  yet  expects.  It  is  certainly  the  re- 
presentation of  Scripture,  that  Christ  has  been  ex- 
alted to  a  throne,  in  recompense  of  his  humiliation 
and  suffering ;  and  that,  seated  on  this  throne,  he 
governs  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth.  And  we 
call  this  throne  the  mediatorial  throne,  because  it 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  169 

was  only  as  Mediator  that  Christ  could  be  exalted ; 
because,  possessing  essentially  all  power  as  God, 
it  could  only  be  as  God-man  that  he  was  vested 
with  dominion.  "He  must  reign,"  saith  St.  Paul, 
"until  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet." 
The  great  object  for  which  the  kingdom  has 
been  erected,  is,  that  he  wrho  occupies  the 
throne  may  subdue  those  principalities  and  pow- 
ers which  have  set  themselves  against  the  govern- 
ment of  God.  Already  have  vast  advances  been 
made  towards  the  subjugation.  But  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world  have  not  yet  become  the  kingdoms 
of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ.  Sin  still  reigns,  and 
death  still  reigns,  and  only  an  inconsiderable  frac- 
tion of  the  human  population  bow  to  the  sceptre 
of  Jesus.  But  we  are  taught  to  expect  a  thorough 
and  stupendous  change.  We  know  from  prophe- 
cy that  a  time  approaches  when  the  whole  world 
shall  be  evangelized;  when  there  shall  not  be  the 
tribe,  no,  nor  the  individual  upon  earth,  who  fails 
to  love  and  reverence  the  Mediator.  Christ  hath 
yet  to  set  up  his  kingdom  on  the  wreck  of  all  hu- 
man sovereignty,  and  so  to  display  himself  that  he 
shall  be  universally  adored  as  "  King  of  kings  and 
Lords  of  lords." 

And  when  this  noble  result  is  brought  round, 

and  the  whole  globe  mantled  with  righteousness, 

there  will  yet  remain  much  to  be  done  ere  the 

mediatorial  work  is  complete.    The  throne  must 

15 


170  BIBLE    THOUGHTS 

be  set  for  judgment ;  the  enactments  of  a  retribu- 
tive economy  take  effect ;  the  dead  be  raised,  and 
all  men  receive  the  things  done  in  the  body. 
Then  will  it  be  evident  that  the  power  committed 
to  Christ  has  accomplished  the  great  ends  for 
which  it  was  entrusted,  the  overthrow  of  iSatan, 
the  destruction  of  death,  and  the  extirpation  of 
unrighteousness.  And  if  it  be  the  declaration  of 
Scripture  that  the  Mediator  shall  thus  at  length 
master  evil  under  its  every  form,  and  in  its  every 
consequence,  will  not  this  Mediator  finally  prove 
himself  a  king — demonstrating  not  only  the  pos- 
session of  sovereignty,  but  the  employment  of  it 
to  those  illustrious  purposes  which  were  pro- 
posed by  God  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  1 
Yes,  we  can  say  with  St.  Paul,  "  we  see  not  yet 
all  things  put  under  him."  But  we  see  enough  to 
assure  us  that  "  him  hath  God  exalted  as  a  Prince 
and  a  Saviour."  We  see  enough,  and  we  know 
enough,  to  be  persuaded  that  there  is  kingdom 
within  kingdom ;  and  that,  whilst  God  is  still  the 
universal  Monarch,  the  Omnipotent  who  w  telleth 
the  number  of  the  stars,"  and  without  whom  not 
even  a  sparrow  falls,  the  Mediator  superintends 
and  regulates  the  affairs  of  his  church,  and  or- 
ders, with  absolute  sway,  whatever  respects  the 
final  establishment  of  righteousness  through  crea- 
tion. And  therefore  are  we  also  persuaded,  on  a 
testimony  which  cannot  deceive,  that  this  Media- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  171 

tor  shall  reign  till  he  hath  brought  into  subjec- 
tion every  adversary  of  God ;  and  that  at  last — 
death  itself  being  swallowed  up  in  victory — the 
universe,  purged  from  all  pollution,  and  glowing 
with  a  richer  than  its  pristine  beauty,  shall  be 
the  evidence  that  there  hath  indeed  been  a  media- 
torial kingdom,  and  that  nothing  could  withstand 
the  Mediator's  sovereignty. 

80.  Mediatorial  Kingdom  of  Christ  not  Eternal. 

We  think  it  evident  that,  as  Mediator,  Christ 
has  certain  functions  to  discharge,  which,  from 
their  very  nature,  cannot  be  eternal.  When  the 
last  of  God's  elect  family  shall  have  been  gather- 
ed in,  there  will  be  none  to  need  the  blood  of 
sprinkling,  none  to  require  the  intercession  of 
"  an  advocate  with  the  Father."  And  when  the 
last  enemy,  which  is  death,  shall  have  been  de- 
stroyed, that  great  purpose  of  the  Almighty — the 
conquest  of  Satan,  and  the  extirpation  of  evil — 
will  be  accomplished  ;  so  that  there  will  be  no 
more  battles  for  the  Mediator  to  fight,  no  more 
adversaries  to  subdue.  And  thus,  if  we  have 
rightly  described  the  mediatorial  kingdom,  there 
is  to  come  a  time  when  it  will  be  no  longer  ne- 
cessary ;  when,  every  object  for  which  it  was 
erected  having  been  fully  and  finally  attained, 
and  no  possibility  existing  that  evil  may  re-enter 


172  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

the  universe,  this  kingdom  may  be  expected  to 
cease. 

And  this  is  the  great  consummation  which  we 
are  taught  to  expect.  We  may  not  be  able  to  ex- 
plain its  details,  but  the  outlines  are  sketched 
with  boldness  and  precision.  There  has  been 
committed  to  Christ,  not  as  God,  but  as  God- 
man,  a  kingdom  which,  though  small  in  its  be- 
ginning, shall  at  length  supersede  every  other. 
The  designs  proposed  in  the  erection  of  this 
kingdom,  are  the  salvation  of  man  and  the  glory 
of  God,  in  the  thorough  extirpation  of  evil  from 
the  universe.  These  designs  will  be  fully  accom- 
plished at  the  general  judgment ;  and  then,  the 
ends  for  which  the  kingdom  was  erected  having 
been  answered,  the  kingdom  itself  is  to  termi- 
nate. Then  shall  the  Son  of  man,  having  "  put 
down  all  rule,  and  all  authority  and  power,"  lay 
aside  the  sceptre  of  majesty.  Then  shall  all  that 
sovereignty,  which,  for  magnificent  but  tempo- 
rary purposes  has  been  wielded  by  and  through 
the  humanity  of  Christ,  pass  again  to  the  God- 
head whence  it  was  derived.  Then  shall  the 
Creator,  acting  no  longer  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  a  mediator,  assume  visibly,  amid  the 
worshipings  of  the  whole  intelligent  creation, 
the  dominion  over  his  infinite  and  now  purified 
empire,  and  administer  its  every  concern  without 
the  intervention  of  one  *r  found  in  fashion  as  a 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  173 

man."  And  then,  though  as  head  of  his  church, 
Christ,  in  human  nature,  may  always  retain  a 
special  power  over  his  people j  and  though,  as  es- 
sentially divine,  he  must  at  all  times  be  equally 
the  omnipotent ;  there  will  necessarily  be  such  a 
change  in  the  visible  government  of  the  universe, 
that  the  Son  shall  seem  to  surrender  all  kingly 
authority ;  to  descend  from  his  throne,  having 
made  his  enemies  his  footstool ;  and  thus  shall 
be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written, 
V  the  Son  also  himself  shall  be  subject  unto  him 
that  put  all  things  under  him  5"  and  God,  the  Fa- 
ther, Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  "  God  shall  hence- 
forwards  be  all  in  all." 

81.  Believer's   experience  of  Chrisfs  sufficiency. 

We  take  it,  as  the  experience  of  the  believer, 
that  the  Captain  of  Salvation  strengthens  his  fol- 
lowers for  the  moral  conflict  to  which  they  are 
pledged.  How  often,  when  Satan  has  brought  all 
his  powers  to  the  assault,  and  the  man  has  seem- 
ed within  a  hair-breadth  of  yielding,  how  often 
has  an  earnest  prayer,  thrown  like  an  arrow  to 
the  mercy-seat,  caused  Christ  to  appear,  as  he 
once  did  to  Joshua,  the  captain  of  the  Lord's 
host ;  and  the  tide  of  battle  has  been  turned,  and 
the  foe  has  been  routed,  and  the  oppressed  one 
delivered  !  How  often,  when  an  evil  passion  has 
almost  goaded  the  believer  into  compliance  with 
15* 


174  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

its  dictates,  and  there  seemed  no  longer  any  like- 
lihood of  its  being  kept  down  or  ejected,  how, 
by  dealing  with  this  passion  as  dealt  the  apostles 
of  old  with  foul  spirits  which  had  entered  into 
the  body,  calling  over  it  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  has  the  passion  been  cast  out,  and  the  pos- 
sessed man  restored  quickly  to  soundness  and 
peace  !  How  often,  in  looking  forward  to  duties 
imposed  on  him  by  his  christian  profession,  has 
the  believer  been  conscious  of  a  kind  of  shrink- 
ing at  the  prospect !  It  has  seemed  to  him  almost 
hopeless  that  he  should  bear  up  under  the  pres- 
sure of  labor  5  that  he  should  meet  faithfully  every 
claim  upon  his  time  and  attention ;  and  that  he 
should  discharge,  with  any  thing  of  becoming 
carefulness,  the  various  offices  with  which  he 
sees  himself  intrusted.  But  when  he  has  reflected 
on  himself  as  simply  an  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  his  Master,  and  resolved  to  go  on  in  a  single 
dependence  on  the  helps  which  are  promised 
through  Christ,  has  not  the  mountain  become  li- 
terally a  plain;  so  that  duties  which,  at  a  dis- 
tance, seemed  altogether  overwhelming,  have 
proved,  when  entered  upon,  the  very  reverse  of 
oppressive  !  And  what  shall  we  assert  to  be  the 
result  of  this  continual  experience  of  the  suffi- 
ciencies of  Christ,  unless  it  be  that  the  believer 
knows  whom  he  hath  believed?  The  stone  which 
God  laid  in  Zion  becomes  to  him,  according  to 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  175 

the  prophetical  description,  a  tried  stone.  He  no 
longer  needs  to  appeal  to  the  experience  of  others. 
He  has  the  witness  in  himself,  and  he  can  use  the 
language  which  the  Samaritans  used  to  the  wo- 
man who  first  told  them  of  Christ  as  the  pro- 
phet,— We  have  heard  him  ourselves,  and  know 
that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the 
world. 

There  can  be  nothing  clearer  than  the  con- 
nection between  experience  and  knowledge.  If  I 
meet  difficulties  in  Christ's  strength,  and  master 
them ;  if  I  face  enemies  in  Christ's  strength,  and 
vanquish  them  ;  if  I  undertake  duties  in  Christ's 
strength,  and  discharge  them, — the  difficulties, 
and  the  enemies,  and  the  duties  being  such  as  I 
could  not  grapple  with  by  my  own  unassisted 
might, — then  my  experience  is  actually  know- 
ledge ;  for  experiencing  Christ  to  be  faithful  and 
powerful,  I  certainly  know  Christ  to  be  faithful 
and  powerful. 

82.  Merit 

If  one  being  merit  of  another,  it  must  perform 
some  action  which  it  was  not  obliged  to  perform, 
and  by  which  that  other  is  advantaged.  Nothing 
else  can  constitute  merit.  I  do  another  a  favor, 
and,  therefore,  deserve  at  his  hands,  if  I  do  some- 
thing by  which  he  is  profited,  and  which  I  was 
not  obliged,  by  mere  duty,  to  do.    If  either  of 


176  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

these  conditions  fail,  merit  must  vanish.  If  the 
other  party  gain  nothing,  he  can  owe  me  no- 
thing ;  and  if  I  have  only  done  what  duty  pre- 
scribed, he  had  a  right  to  the  action,  and  cannot, 
therefore,  have  been  laid  under  obligation. 

We  wave  the  consideration,  that,  if  there  be 
merit,  God  must  be  advantaged — though  there 
lies  in  it  the  material  of  an  overpowering  proof 
that  the  notion  of  creature-merit  is  little  short  of 
blasphemous.  Who  can  think  of  being  profitable 
unto  God,  when  he  remembers  the  independence 
of  Deity,  and  calls  to  mind  that  there  was  a  time 
when  the  Creator  had  not  surrounded  himself 
with  worlds  and  tribes,  and  when,  occupied  with 
glorious  and  ineffable  communings,  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Spirit,  reaped  in  from  the  deep  solitudes 
of  immensity  as  full  a  revenue  of  happiness  as 
they  now  gather  from  its  thickly-peopled  circles  1 
No  creature  can  do  without  God.  But  God  could 
have  done  without  creatures.  They  were  not  ne- 
cessary to  God.  There  was  no  void  in  his  bless- 
edness which  required  the  contributions  of  crea- 
tures before  it  could  be  filled  up.  And  it  must  be 
absurd  to  talk  of  advantaging  God,  when  we  know 
that  his  magnificence  and  his  happiness  would 
have  been  infinite,  had  he  chosen  to  dwell  for 
ever  in  his  sublime  loneliness,  and  suffered  not 
the  stillness  of  the  unmeasured  expanse,  full  only 
of  himself,  to  be  broken  by  the  hum  of  a  swarm- 
ing population. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  177 

But  we  wave  this  consideration.  We  fasten 
you  to  the  fact,  that  a  meritorious  action  must 
be  an  action  of  which  duty  demands  not  the  per- 
formance. In  determining  the  question,  whether 
a  creature  can  merit,  we  have  nothing  to  do,  ab- 
stractedly, with  the  magnificence  of  the  energies 
of  that  creature,  nor  with  the  stupendousness  of 
the  achievements  which  he  is  capable  of  effect- 
ing. There  is  not,  of  necessity,  any  greater  rea- 
son why  an  angel  should  merit,  because  able  to 
move  a  world,  than  why  a  worm  should  merit, 
because  just  able  to  crawl  upon  its  surface.  The 
whole  question  of  the  possibility  of  merit  is  a 
question  of  the  possibility  of  outrunning  duty. 
Unless  duty  be  exceeded,  every  creature  must 
receive,  as  applicable  to  himself,  the  words  of 
the  Saviour,  "  When  ye  shall  have  done  all  those 
things  which  are  commanded  you,  say,  we  are 
unprofitable  servants,"  (and,  if  unprofitable,  cer- 
tainly not  meritorious;)  "  we  have  done  that 
which  was  our  duty  to  do." 

83.    Men's  disposition  to  claim  Merit. 

We  know  not  the  point  in  theology  which  re- 
quires to  be  oftener  stated,  or  more  carefully  es- 
tablished, than  the  impossibility  that  a  creature 
should  merit  at  the  hands  of  the  Creator.  It  is 
not  to  be  controverted,  that  men  are  disposed  to 
entertain  the  opinion  that  creature-merit  is  pos- 


178  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

sible,  so  that  they  have  it  in  their  power  to  effect 
something  deserving  recompense  from  God.  They 
will  not  indeed  always  set  the  point  of  merit  very 
high.  They  will  rather  imitate  the  Pharisee  in  the 
parable,  who  evidently  thought  himself  merito- 
rious for  stopping  a  degree  or  two  short  of  being 
scandalous.  "  God,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as 
other  men  are,  extortioners,  unjust,  adulterers. " 
But  whether  it  be  at  a  low  point,  or  a  lofty,  that 
merit  is  supposed  to  commence,  every  man  must 
own  as  his  natural  sentiment,  that  it  commences 
at  some  point ;  and  each  one  of  us,  if  he  have 
ever  probed  his  own  heart,  will  confess  himself 
prone  to  the  persuasion,  that  the  creature  can 
lay  the  Creator  under  obligation.  We  find  our- 
selves able  to  deserve  well  of  one  another,  to 
confer  favors,  and  to  contract  debts.  And  when 
we  carry  up  our  thoughts  from  the  finite  to  the 
infinite,  we  quite  forget  the  total  change  in  the 
relationship ;  and  we  perceive  not  that  the  posi- 
tion in  which  we  stand  to  our  Maker  excludes 
those  deservings,  which,  unquestionably,  have 
place  between  man  and  man.  Men  simply  view 
God  as  the  mightiest  of  sovereigns,  and,  know- 
ing it  possible  to  do  a  favor  to  their  king,  con- 
clude it  possible  to  do  a  favor  to  their  God. 

84-.     Self -Righteousness. 
We  are  bound  to  say,  that  we  know  not  more 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  179 

unpromising  subjects  for  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel,  than  those  who  are  punctiliously  atten- 
tive to  the  forms  of  religion,  and  who  attach  a 
worth  and  a  merit  to  their  careful  performance 
of  certain  moral  duties.  We  cannot  have  a  more 
unpalatable  truth  to  deliver — but  wo  is  unto  us  if 
we  dare  to  keep  it  back — than  that  which  exposes 
the  utter  insufficiency  of  the  best  human  righte- 
ousness, and  which  tells  men,  who  are  amiable 
and  charitable,  and  moral  and  upright,  that,  with 
all  their  excellencies,  they  may  be  further  from 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  than  the  dissolute  whom 
they  regard  with  absolute  loathing.  The  imme- 
diate feeling  is,  that  we  confound  virtue  and  vice  ; 
and  that,  allowing  no  superiority  to  what  is  lovely 
and  of  good  report,  we  represent  God  as  indif- 
ferent to  moral  conduct,  and  thus  undermine  the 
foundations  on  which  society  rests.  But  we  are 
open  to  no  such  charge.  We  are  quite  alive  to  the 
beauty  and  advantageousness  of  that  moral  ex- 
cellence which  does  not  spring  from  a  principle 
of  religion,  nay,  which  may  even  oppose  the  ad- 
mission of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity. 
There  is  not  a  man  for  whom  we  have  a  greater 
feeling  of  interest,  because  there  is  not  one  of 
whom  naturally  we  have  a  greater  admiration, 
than  for  him  who  is  passing  through  life  with  an 
unblemished  reputation,  sedulously  attentive  to 
all  the  relative  duties,  and  taking  generously  the 


180  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

lead  in  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  his 
fellows,  but  who,  all  the  while,  has  no  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  sinfulness,  and  who  therefore 
rests  on  his  own  works  and  not  on  Christ's  mer- 
its. If  you  compare  this  man  with  a  dissolute 
character,  one  who  is  outraging  the  laws  of  so- 
ciety, and  the  feelings  of  humanity ;  and  if  you 
judge  the  two  merely  writh  reference  to  the  pre- 
sent scene  of  being,  why  there  is  the  widest  pos- 
sible difference  ;  and  to  speak  of  the  one  as 
equally  depraved  and  equally  vile  with  the  other, 
would  be  an  overcharged  statement  carrying  its 
own  confutation. 

But  what  is  there  to  prove  that  there  may  not 
be  just  as  much  rebellion  against  God  in  the  one 
case  as  in  the  other ;  and  that  the  man  whose 
deportment  is  marked  by  what  is  praiseworthy 
and  beneficial,  may  not  be  as  void  of  all  love  to- 
wards the  Author  of  his  being,  as  he  who,  by  his 
vices  and  villany,  draws  upon  himself  the  execra- 
tions of  a  neighborhood  1  Try  men  as  members 
of  society,  and  they  are  as  widely  separated  as 
the  poles  of  the  earth.  But  try  them  as  God's 
creatures,  not  their  own,  but  "  bought  with  a 
price,"  and  you  may  bring  them  to  the  same  level, 
or  even  prove  the  moral  and  amiable  further 
alienated  than  the  dissolute  and  repulsive.  Yes, 
further  alienated.  It  is  a  hard  saying,  but  we  can- 
not pare  it  away.    These  upright  and  charitable 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  181 

men,  on  whom  a  world  is  lavishing  its  applause, 
how  will  they  receive  us  when  we  come  and  tell 
them  that  they  are  sinners  who  have  earned  for 
themselves  eternal  destruction  ;  and  that  they 
are  no  more  secured  against  ruin  by  their  recti- 
tude and  philanthropy,  than  if  they  were  the 
slaves  of  every  vice,  and  the  patrons  of  every 
crime  %  May  we  not  speak  of,  at  least,  a  high 
probability,  that  they  will  be  disgusted  at  a  state- 
ment which  makes  so  light  of  their  excellence ; 
and  that  they  will  turn  away  from  the  doctrines 
of  the  Gospel  as  too  humiliating  to  be  true,  or  as  , 
only  constructed  for  the  very  refuse  of  mankind  1 
Oh,  we  again  say  that  we  hardly  know  a  more 
hopeless  task  than  that  of  bringing  the  Gospel  to 
bear  on  an  individual  who  is  trenched  about  with 
self-righteousness.  If  we  are  dealing  with  the 
openly  immoral  man,  we  can  take  the  thunders 
of  the  law,  and  ply  his  conscience.  We  know 
well  enough,  that,  in  his  case,  there  is  a  voice 
within  which  answers  to  the  voice  from  without ; 
and  that,  however  he  may  harden  himself  against 
our  remonstrance,  there  is,  at  least,  no  sophistry 
by  which  he  can  persuade  himself  that  he  is  not 
a  sinner.  This  is  a  great  point  secured  :  we  oc- 
cupy a  vantage-ground,  from  which  we  may  di- 
rect, with  full  power,  all  our  moral  artillery.  But 
when  we  deal  with  the  man  who  is  amiable,  and 
estimable,  and  exemplary,  but  who,  nevertheless, 
16 


182  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

is  a  stranger  to  the  motives  of  the  Gospel,  our 
very  first  assertion — for  this  must  be  our  first ; 
we  cannot  advance  a  step  till  this  preliminary  is 
felt  and  conceded — the  assertion,  that  the  man  is 
a  sinner,  deserving  only  hell,  arms  against  us  his 
every  antipathy,  and  is  almost  certain  to  call  up 
such  a  might  of  opposition,  that  we  are  at  once 
repulsed  as  unworthy  further  hearing. 

85.  Angels  cannot  Merit. 

If  duty  exclude  merit,  the  condition  of  the  an 
gel,  as  much  as  that  of  the  worm,  excludes  merit 
If  all  which  the  angel  has  belongs  to  the  Creator  > 
if  that  noble  intelligence  which  elevates  him  far 
above  our  own  level  be  the  property  of  God  j  if 
that  awful  might,  which  could  strew  the  ground 
with  the  thousands  of  the  Assyrian  host,  be  com- 
municated by  Deity;  if  that  velocity  of  flight, 
which  fits  him  to  go  on  embassages  to  the  very 
outskirts  of  creation,  be  imparted  by  his  Maker — 
there  must  be  a  demand,  an  inalienable  demand, 
upon  the  angel,  for  every  instant  of  his  time,  and 
for  every  fraction  of  his  strength,  and  for  every 
waving  of  his  wing.  Duty,  the  duty  which  is  im- 
posed upon  him  by  the  fact  of  his  creatureship, 
can  draw  no  frontier-line  excluding  from  a  re- 
quired consecration  to  God  the  minutest  item  of 
those  multiform  possessions,  which  render  him  a 
splendid  and  mighty  thing,  the  nearest  approach 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  183 

to  Divinity  in  all  that  interminable  series  of  pro- 
ductions which  bounded  into  being  at  the  call  of 
the  Omnipotent. 

So  that  the  angel,  just  as  much  as  the  meanest 
of  creatures,  must  say  of  all  that  he  can  bring  to 
God,  of  thine  own  do  I  give  thee.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
costlier  offering  than  the  human  eye  hath  seen, 
or  the  human  thought  imagined.  There  is  a  fer- 
vor of  affection,  and  a  grasp  of  understanding,  and 
a  strenuousness  of  labor,  aye,  and  an  intenseness 
of  self-abasement  and  humility,  which  enter  not 
into  the  best  and  purest  of  the  oblations  which 
are  laid  by  ourselves  at  the  feet  of  our  Maker. 
But  as  there  is  not  one  jot  less  than  duty  pre- 
scribes, neither  is  there  one  jot  more.  God  gave 
all  which  is  brought  to  him.  His  the  glowing  love. 
His  the  soaring  intellect.  His  the  awful  vigor. 
His  the  beautiful  lowliness.  And  shall  he  be  laid 
under  obligation  by  his  own]  Shall  he  be  bound 
to  make  return,  because  he  hath  received  of  his 
own  1  Oh,  we  may  discuss,  and  debate,  upon 
earth,  the  possibility,  or  the  impossibility,  of 
creature-merit.  But  we  may  be  sure,  that,  if  the 
question  could  be  propounded  to  angels,  the 
thought  of  merit  would  be  rejected  as  treason. 
Standing  in  the  immediate  presence  of  their  glo- 
rious Creator ;  privileged  to  gaze,  so  far  as  it  is 
possible  for  creatures  to  gaze  without  being  wi- 
thered, on  his  unveiled  lustres  ;  and  fraught  with 


184  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

the  consciousness,  that,  however  wonderful  their 
powers  and  capacities,  they  possess  nothing 
which  God  did  not  give,  and  which  God  might 
not  instantly  withdraw — angels  must  feel  that  the 
attempt  to  deserve  of  the  Almighty  would  be  tan- 
tamount to  an  attempt  to  dethrone  the  Almighty, 
and  that  the  supposing  that  more  might  be  done 
than  is  demanded  by  duty,  would  be  the  sup- 
posing an  eternity  exhausted,  and  time  left  for 
some  praiseworthy  exploits.  Angels  must  discern, 
with  an  acuteness  of  perception  never  reached 
by  ourselves  whilst  hampered  by  corruption,  that 
each  energy  in  their  endowment  constitutes  a  re- 
quisition for  a  contribution  of  glory  to  Jehovah ; 
and  that  the  endeavor  to  employ  it  to  the  pro- 
curing greatness,  or  happiness,  for  themselves, 
would  amount  to  a  base  and  fatal  prostitution, 
causing  them  at  once  to  be  ranked  with  the  apos- 
tate. And  thus,  upon  the  simple  principle  that 
"  all  things  come  of  God,"  and  that  only  of  his 
own  can  they  give  him,  angels,  who  are  vast  in 
might,  and  brilliant  in  purity,  would  count  it  the 
breaking  into  rebellion  to  entertain  the  thought 
of  the  possibility  of  merit ;  and  unless  you  could 
prove  to  them  that  God  had  given  less  than  all. 
that  there  were  abilities  in  their  nature  which 
they  had  derived  from  sources  independent  on 
Deity,  and  that,  consequently,  their  duty  towards 
God  required  not  the  dedication  of  every  iota  of 


ETBLE    THOtrGHTS.  IS5 

every  faculty ;  unless  you  could  prove  to  them 
this — and  you  might  prove  this,  when  you  could 
show  them  two  Gods,  two  Creators,  and  parcel 
out  between  two  Almighties  the  authorship  of 
their  surpassing  endowments — you  would  make 
no  way  with  your  demonstration,  that  it  was  pos- 
sible for  an  angel  to  deserve  of  God. 

86,  Marts  Works  not  Meritorious. 

What  merit  can  there  be  in  works  1  If  you 
give  much  alms,  whose  is  the  money  1  "  The 
silver  is  mine,  and  the  gold  is  mine,  saith  the 
Lord  of  Hosts."  If  you  mortify  the  body,  whose 
are  the  macerated  limbs  1  If  you  put  sackcloth  on 
the  soul,  whose  is  the  chastened  spirit  ]  If  you 
be  moral,  and  honest,  and  friendly,  and  generous, 
and  patriotic,  whose  are  the  dispositions  which 
you  exercise,  whose  the  powers  to  which  you 
give  culture  and  scope  1  And  if  you  only  use 
God's  gifts,  can  that  be  meritorious  1  You  may 
say,  yes — it  is  meritorious  to  use  them  aright, 
whilst  others  abuse  them.  But  is  it  wickedness 
to  abuse  1  Then  it  can  only  be  duty  to  use  aright ; 
and  duty  will  be  merit,  when  debt  is  donation. 
You  may  bestow  a  fortune  in  charity ;  but  the 
wealth  is  already  the  Lord's.  You  may  cultivate 
the  virtues  which  adorn  and  sweeten  human  life  ; 
but  the  employed  powers  are  the  Lord's.  You 
may  give  time  and  strength  to  the  enterprises  of 
16* 


186  BIBLE   TH0TTGETS. 

philanthropy ;  each  moment  is  the  Lord's,  each 
sinew  is  the  Lord's.  You  may  be  upright  in  every 
dealing  of  trade,  scrupulously  honorable  in  all  the 
intercourse  of  life  ;  but rr  a  just  weight  and  balance 
are  the  Lord's,  all  the  weights  of  the  bag  are  his 
work."  And  where,  then,  is  the  merit  of  works  'I 
Oh,  throw  into  one  heap  each  power  of  the  mind, 
each  energy  of  the  body ;  use  in  God's  service 
each  grain  of  your  substance,  each  second  of 
your  time ;  give  to  the  Almighty  every  throb  of 
the  pulse,  every  drawing  of  the  breath  ;  labor  and 
strive,  and  be  instant,  in  season  and  out  of  season* 
and  let  the  steepness  of  the  mountain  daunt  you 
not,  and  the  swellings  of  the  ocean  deter  you  not, 
and  the  ruggedness  of  the  desert  appall  you  not, 
but  on,  still  on,  in  toiling  for  your  Maker ;  and 
dream,  and  talk,  and  boast  of  merit,  when  you 
can  find  the  particle  in  the  heap,  or  the  shred  in 
the  exploit,  which  you  may  exclude  from  the  con- 
fession, "  all  things  come  of  thee,  and  of  thine 
owriy  O  God,  have  I  given  thee." 

87.     The  Holy  Spirit. 

The  Holy  Spirit  alone  can  make  us  feel  the 
things  which  are  easy  to  be  understood,  and  pre- 
vent our  wresting  those  which  are  hard.  Never, 
then,  should  the  Bible  be  opened  except  with 
prayer  for  the  teachings  of  this  Spirit.  You  will 
read  without  profit,  as  long  as  you  read  without 


EIELE    THOUGHTS.  187 

prayer.  It  is  only  in  the  degree  that  the  Spirit, 
which  indited  a  text,  takes  it  from  the  page  and 
breathes  it  into  the  heart,  that  we  can  compre- 
hend its  meaning,  he  touched  hy  its  beauty,  stir* 
red  by  its  remonstrance,  or  animated  by  its  pro- 
mise. We  shall  never,  then,  master  scriptural 
difficulties  by  the  methods  which  prove  success- 
ful in  grappling  with  philosophical.  Why  is  it 
that  the  poor  peasant,  whose  understanding  is 
weak  and  undisciplined,  has  clear  insight  into  the 
meaning  of  verses,  and  finds  in  them  irresistible 
power  and  inexhaustible  comfort,  whilst  the  very 
same  passages  are  given  up  as  mysteries,  or  over- 
looked as  unimportant  by  the  high  and  lettered 
champion  of  a  scholastic  theology  1  It  were  idle 
to  deny  that  our  rustic  divines  will  oftentimes 
travel  with  a  far  firmer  and  more  dominant  step 
than  our  collegiate  into  the  depths  of  a  scriptural 
statement ;  and  that  you  might  obtain  from  some 
of  the  patriarchs  of  our  valleys,  whose  chief  in- 
instruction  has  been  their  own  communing  with 
the  Almighty,  such  explanations  of  tr  things  hard 
to  be  understood"  as  would  put  to  shame  the 
commentaries  of  our  most  learned  expositors. 
And  of  this  phenomenon  the  solution  would  be 
hopeless,  if  there  were  not  a  broad  instituted  dif- 
ference between  human  and  sacred  literature : 
,f  the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  being  "  like  unto  trea- 
sure hid  in  a  field ;"  and  the  finding  this  treasure 


188  EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

depending  not  at  all  on  the  power  of  the  intel* 
lect  brought  to  the  search,  but  on  the  heartiness 
and  the  earnestness  with  which  the  Psalmist's 
prayer  is  used,  "  open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may 
behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law."  If  you 
open  a  scientific  book,  or  study  an  abstruse  and 
metaphysical  work,  let  reason  gird  herself  boldly 
for  the  task :  the  province  belongs  fairly  to  her 
jurisdiction ;  and  she  may  cling  to  her  own  ener- 
gies without  laying  herself  open  to  the  charge, 
that,  according  to  the  characteristic  which  Joel 
gives  of  the  last  times,  the  weak  is  vaunting  itself 
the  strong.  But  if  you  open  the  Bible  and  sit  down 
to  the  investigation  of  scriptural  truth,  you  are 
in  a  district  which  lies  far  beyond  the  just  limits 
of  the  empire  of  reason :  there  is  need  of  an  ap- 
paratus wholly  distinct  from  that  which  sufficed 
for  your  former  inquiry  :  and  if  you  think  to 
comprehend  revelation,  except  so  far  as  the  Au- 
thor shall  act  as  interpreter,  you  are,  most  empha- 
tically, the  weak  pronouncing  yourselves  the 
strong,  and  the  Bible  shall  be  to  you  a  closed 
book,  and  you  shall  break  not  the  seals  which  God 
himself  hath  placed  on  the  volume.  O,  they  are 
seals  which  melt  away  like  a  snow-wreath,  before 
the  breathings  of  the  Spirit ;  but  not  all  the  lire 
of  human  genius  shall  ever  prevail  to  dissolve  or 
loosen  them. 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  189 


88.     Universality  of  the  strivings  of  tkt  Holy 
Spirit. 


We  are  certain  of  every  one  amongst  you  who 
neglects  salvation,  that  he  withstands  the  sug- 
gestions and  strivings  of  the  Spirit  of  the  living- 
God.  Yie  know  that  there  is  not  one  of  you,  the 
most  indifferent  and  careless  in  regard  to  the 
threatenings  and  promises  of  the  Gospel,  who 
has  not  had  to  fight  his  way  to  his  present  insen- 
sibility against  the  powerful  remonstrances  of  an 
invisible  monitor,  and  who  is  not  often  compelled, 
in  order  to  the  keeping  himself  from  alarm  and 
anxiety,  to  crush,  with  a  sudden  and  desperate 
violence,  pleadings  which  are  fraught  with  super- 
human energy.  We  know  this.  We  want  no  lay- 
ing bare  of  your  secret  experience  in  order  to 
our  ascertaining  this.  We  need  no  confessions 
to  inform  us  that  you  have  some  little  trouble  in 
destroying  yourselves.  The  young  amongst  you, 
whose  god  is  pleasure,  and  whose  home  the  world, 
we  would  not  believe  them  if  they  assured  us, 
that  they  never  know  any  kind  of  mental  uneasi- 
ness; that  never,  when  in  the  crowd — never, 
when  alone,  do  they  hear  the  whisperings  of  a 
voice  which  tells  them  of  moral  danger ;  that 
they  have  never  difficulty,  when  told  of  the  death 
of  an  associate,  or  when  they  meet  a  funeral,  or 
when  laid  on  a  sick  bed,  in  repressing  all  fear,  all 


190  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

consciousness  of  a  necessity  for  a  thorough 
change  of  conduct.  We  would  not  believe  them, 
we  say,  if  they  assured  us  of  this.  We  know  bet- 
ter. We  know  them  the  possessors  of  a  con- 
science. We  know  them  acted  on  by  the  Spirit 
of  the  Almighty.  We  know  them  immortal,  sons 
and  daughters  of  eternity,  however  they  may  en- 
deavor to  live  as  though  death  were  annihilation. 
And  therefore  we  would  not  believe  them.  0, 
no  !  As  soon  believe  the  rock,  were  it  gifted  with 
speech,  which  should  argue,  that,  because  un- 
softened,  it  was  never  shone  on  by  the  sun,  and 
never  swept  by  the  winds,  and  never  dashed  by 
the  waters,  as  the  granite  of  the  heart,  which, 
because  yet  insensible,  would  deny  that  an  un- 
seen hand  ever  smote  it,  or  celestial  dews  ever 
fell  on  it,  or  divine  beams  strove  to  penetrate  it. 
No,  we  cannot  believe  you  when  you  would 
tell  us  that  you  are  let  alone  by  God.  Again  we 
reply,  that  we  know  better.  We  know  that  the 
young  man,  who  is  the  slave  of  his  passions,  has 
often  a  misgiving  that  his  tyrants  here  will  be  his 
tormentors  hereafter.  We  know  that  the  young 
woman,  whose  deity  is  her  dress,  is  sometimes 
startled  by  the  thought  of  the  shroud  and  the 
winding-sheet.  We  know  that  the  merchantman, 
laboring  to  be  rich,  is  now  and  then  aghast  with 
the  fear  of  being  poor  through  eternity.  We 
know  that  the  shrewd  man,   too  cunning  to  be 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  -  191 

duped  by  any  but  himself,  has  moments  in  which 
he  feels,  that,  in  the  greatest  of  all  transactions, 
he  may,  perhaps,  be  overreached,  and  barter  the 
everlasting  for  the  perishable.  We  know  that  the 
proud  man,  moving  in  a  region  of  his  own,  and 
Hushed  with  the  thought  how  many  are  beneath 
him,  is  occasionally  startled  by  a  vision  of  utter 
degradation,  himself  in  infamy,  and  "How  art 
thou  fallen  !"  breathed  against  him  by  the  vilest. 
We  know  that  those  who  neglect  means  of  grace, 
do  violence  to  a  secret  remonstrance,  and  feel,  if 
only  for  an  instant,  (O,  how  easy,  by  the  resist- 
ance of  an  instant,  to  endanger  their  eternity  !) 
that  they  are  rejecting  privileges  which  will  rise 
against  them  as  accusers.  We  know  all  this,  and 
we  cannot  believe  you  when  you  would  tell  us 
that  you  are  let  alone  by  God.  You  are  not  let 
alone.  You  are  acted  on  through  the  machinery 
of  conscience.  You  may  have  done  your  best  to- 
wards mastering  and  exterminating  conscience, 
but  you  have  not  yet  quite  succeeded.  There  is 
divinity  in  the  monitor,  and  it  will  not  be  over- 
borne. We  know  that  you  are  not  let  alone,  for 
the  salvation  which  we  press  on  your  acceptance 
is  a  great  salvation ;  and  in  nothing  is  this  great- 
ness more  apparent  than  in  the  fact,  that  the  Spi- 
rit of  the  Almighty  is  occupied  with  commend- 
ing this  salvation  to  sinners,  and  combating  their 
prejudices,  and  urging  them  to  accept.    It  is  in- 


192  BIBLE   mobs 


deed  a  marvellous  greatness  that  Omnipotence 
itself  should  not  be  more  engaged  with  uphold- 
ing the  universe,  and  actuating  the  motions  of 
unnumbered  systems,  and  sustaining  the  anima- 
tion of  every  living  thing,  from  the  archangel 
down  to  the  insect,  than  with  plying  transgressors 
with  all  the  motives  which  are  laid  up  in  the  Gos- 
pel, admonishing  them  by  the  agony,  and  the 
passion,  and  the  death  of  a  Mediator,  and  warn- 
ing them  by  the  terrors,  as  well  as  inviting  them 
by  the  mercies  of  the  cross.  It  is  a  marvellous 
greatness.  But  if  you  remain  the  indifferent  and 
unbelieving,  this  greatness  only  proves  that  you 
are  not  to  be  overcome  by  the  strongest  power 
which  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  our  nature  ; 
proves  that  an  agency,  than  which  none  is  migh- 
tier, has  wrestled  with  you,  and  striven  with  you, 
but  as  yet  all  in  vain ;  proves,  therefore,  the  cer- 
tainty of  your  destruction  if  v  you  persist  in  your 
carelessness,  because  it  proves,  that,  having  with- 
stood the  most  potent  means,  there  can  be  none 
to  which  you  will  yield.  And  what  is  this  but 
proving  the  peril  of  neglect  from  the  greatness 
of  salvation  1  What  is  this,  since  the  greatness 
of  salvation  depends  much  on  the  greatness  of 
the  being  who  applies  it ;  what  is  this  but  asking, 
M  How  shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great 
salvation  V1 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  193 

89.     Danger  of  Stifling  Conviction. 

To  stifle  a  conviction  is  the  first  step  in  a  path- 
way which  leads  directly  to  stupefaction  of  con- 
science. Men  will  flock  in  crowds  to  the  public, 
preaching  of  the  word,  though  the  master  natu- 
ral passion,  whatsoever  it  be,  retain  undisputed 
the  lordship  of  their  spirits.  And  this  passion 
may  be  avarice,  or  it  may  be  voluptuousness,  or 
ambition,  or  envy,  or  pride.  But,  however  cha- 
racterized, the  dominant  lust  is  brought  into  the 
sanctuary  and  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  the 
preacher.  And  who  shall  say  what  a  disturbing 
force  the  sermon  will  oftentimes  put  forth  against 
the  master-passion ;  and  how  frequently  the 
word  of  the  living  God,  delivered  in  earnestness 
and  affection,  shall  have  almost  made  a  breach  in 
the  strong-holds  of  Satan  1  Aye,  we  believe  that 
often,  when  a  minister,  gathering  himself  up  in 
the  strength  of  his  Master,  launches  the  thun- 
derbolt of  truth  against  vice  and  unrighteous- 
ness, there  is  a  vast  stirring  of  heart  through  the 
listening  assembly;  and  that  as  he  reasons  of 
fT righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to 
come,"  though  the  natural  ear  catch  no  sounds 
of  anxiety  and  alarm,  attendant  angels,  who 
watch  the  workings  of  the  Gospel,  hear  the  deep 
beatings  of  many  souls,  and  almost  start  at  the 
bounding  throb  of  aroused  and  agitated  spirits, 
17 


194»  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

If  Satan  ever  tremble  for  his  ascendency,  it  13 
when  the  preacher  has  riveted  the  attention  of 
the  unconverted  individual ;  and,  after  describing 
and  denouncing  the  covetousness,  or  pouring"  out 
the  torrent  of  his  speech  on  an  exhibition  of  the 
voluptuary,  or  exposing  the  madness  and  misery 
of  the  proud,  comes  down  on  that  individual  with 
the  startling  announcement,  "  Thou  art  the  man!" 
And  the  individual  goes  away  from  the  sanctuary 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  subduing  the  mas- 
ter-passion ;  and  he  will  form,  and  for  a  while  act 
upon,  the  resolution  of  wrestling  against  pride, 
or  of  mortifying  lust,  or  of  renouncing  avarice. 
But  he  proceeds  in  his  own  strength,  and,  having 
no  consciousness  of  the  inabilities  of  his  nature, 
seeks  not  to  God's  Spirit  for  assistance.  In  a  lit- 
tle time,  therefore,  all  the  impression  wears  away. 
He  saw  only  the  danger  of  sin  ;  he  went  not  on 
to  see  its  vileness.  And  the  mind  soon  habituates 
itself,  or  soon  grows  indifferent,  to  the  contem- 
plation of  danger,  and,  above  all,  when  perhaps 
distant.  Hence  the  man  will  return  quickly  to  his 
old  haunts.  And  whether  it  be  to  money-making 
that  he  again  gives  himself,  or  to  sensuality,  or 
to  ambition,  he  will  enter  on  the  pursuit  with  an 
eagerness  heightened  by  abstinence ;  and  thus 
the  result  shall  be  practically  the  same  as  though, 
having  sown  moral  stupor,  he  were  reaping  in  a 
harvest  tremendously  luxuriant.    And  0,  if  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  105 

mnn,  after  this  renouncement  and  restoration  of 
the  master-passion,  come  again  to  the  sanctuary ; 
and  if  again  the  preacher  denounce,  with  a  righ- 
teous vehemence,  every  working  of  ungodliness  ; 
and  the  fire  be  in  his  eye,  and  the  thunder  on  his 
tongue,  as  he  makes  a  stand  for  God  and  for 
truth  against  a  reckless  and  semi-infidel  genera- 
tion 5  alas !  the  man  who  has  felt  convictions, 
and  sown  their  stiflings,  will  be  more  inaccessi- 
ble than  ever,  and  more  impervious.  He  will 
have  been  hardened  through  the  vegetating  pro- 
cess which  has  gone  on  in  his  soul.  A  far  migh- 
tier apparatus  than  before  will  be  required  to 
make  the  lightest  impression. 

90.  Repe?ilance.  — 

The  abandonment  of  certain  vicious  practices, 
and  a  breaking  loose  from  habits  which  have  held 
the  soul  in  bondage,  is  not  the  whole  of  true  re- 
pentance. Long  ere  the*  man  thinks  of  applying  to 
Christ,  and  whilst  almost  a  stranger  to  his  name, 
he  may  make  a  great  advance  in  reformation  of 
conduct,  renouncing  much  which  his  conscience 
has  declared  wrong,  and  entering  upon  duties  of 
which  he  has  been  neglectful.  But  this  comes  far 
short  of  that  thorough  moral  change  which  is  in- 
tended by  the  inspired  writers,  when  they  speak 
'  of  repentance.  The  outward  conduct  may  be 
amended,  whilst  no  attack  is  made  on  the  love 


196  BIBLS    THOUGHTS. 

of  sin  as  seated  in  the  heart ;  so  that  the  change 
may  be  altogether  on  the  surface,  and  extend  not 
to  the  affections  of  the  inner  man.  But  the  re- 
pentance required  of  those  who  are  forgiven 
through  Christ,  is  a  radical  change  of  mind  and 
of  spirit ;  a  change  which  will  be  made  apparent 
by  a  corresponding*  in  the  outward  deportment, 
but  whose  great  scene  is  within,  and  which  there 
affects  every  power  and  propensity  of  our  nature. 
And  a  repentance  such  as  this,  seeing  it  manifest- 
ly lies  beyond  the  reach  of  our  own  strivings,  is 
only  to  be  obtained  from  Christ,  who  ascended 
up  on  high,  and  rf  received  gifts  for  the  rebel- 
lious," becoming,  in  his  exaltation,  the  source 
and  dispenser  of  those  various  assistances  which 
fallen  beings  need  as  probationers  for  eternity. 

What,  then,  is  it  which  a  man  has  to  do  who  is 
desirous  of  becoming  truly  repentant  1  We  reply 
that  he  is  to  go  in  earnest  prayer  to  Christ,  for 
the  aids  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Of  course  we  do  not 
mean  that  he  is  to  confine  himself  to  prayer,  and 
make  no  effort  at  correcting  what  may  be  wrong 
in  his  conduct.  The  sincerity  of  his  prayer  can 
only  be  proved  by  the  vigor  of  his  endeavor  to 
obey  God's  commands.  But  we  mean,  that,  along 
with  his  strenuousness  in  renouncing  evil  habits 
and  associations,  there  must  be  an  abiding  per- 
suasion that  repentance,  as  well  as  forgiveness, 
is  to  be  procured  through  nothing  but  the  aton- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  197 

ing  sacrifice  of  Christ  j  and  this  persuasion  must 
make  him  unwearied  in  entreaty,  that  Christ 
would  send  into  his  soul  the  renovating  power. 
It  may  be  urged  that  Christ  pardons  none  but 
the  penitent,  but  our  statement  rather  is,  that 
those  whom  he  pardons  he  first  makes  penitent. 
And  shall  we  be  told  that  we  thus  reduce  man 
below  the  level  of  an  intelligent,  accountable  be- 
ing 5  making  him  altogether  passive,  and  allotting 
him  no  task  in  the  struggle  for  immortality  1  We 
throw  back  the  accusation  as  altogether  un- 
founded. We  call  upon  man  for  the  stretch  of 
every  muscle,  and  the  strain  of  every  power. 
As  to  his  being  saved  in  indolence,  saved  in  inac- 
tivity, he  may  as  well  look  for  harvest  where  he 
has  never  sown,  and  for  knowledge  where  he  has 
never  studied.  Is  it  to  be  an  idler,  is  it  to  be  a 
sluggard,  to  have  to  keep  down  that  pride  which 
would  keep  him  from  Christ ;  to  be  wrestling 
with  those  passions  which  the  light  that  is  in  him 
shows  must  be  mortified  ;  to  be  unwearied  in  pe- 
tition for  the  assistances  of  the  Spirit,  and  in 
using  such  helps  as  have  been  already  vouch- 
safed 1  If  this  be  idleness,  that  man  is  an  idler 
who  is  actuated  by  the  consciousness  that  he 
can  no  more  repent  than  be  pardoned  without 
Christ.  But  if  it  be  to  task  a  man  to  the  utmost 
of  his  energy,  to  prescribe  that  he  go  straight- 
way for  every  thing  which  he  needs  to  an  invi- 
17* 


198  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

sible  Mediator ;  go,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
the  flesh  ;  go,  though  the  path  lies  through  resist- 
ing inclinations  ;  go,  though  in  going  he  must 
abase  himself  in  the  dust,  and  proclaim  his  own 
nothingness ;  then  we  are  exhorting  the  impeni- 
tent to  the  mightiest  of  labors,  when  we  exhort 
them  to  seek  repentance  as  Christ's  gift.  The 
assigning  its  true  place  to  repentance ;  the  de- 
stroying the  notion  that  repentance  is  to  be  ef- 
fected for  ourselves,  and  then  to  recommend  us 
to  the  Saviour;  this,  in  place  of  telling  men  that 
they  have  little  or  nothing  to  do,  is  the  urging 
them  to  diligence  by  showing  how  it  may  be  suc- 
cessful ;  and  to  effort,  by  pointing  out  the  alone 
channel  through  wThich  it  can  prevail. 

91.  Repentance — Us  proper  place. 

There  are  few  duties  to  which  men  are  more 
frequently  urged,  and  in  regard  to  which,  never- 
theless, they  are  more  likely  to  be  deceived,  than 
the  great  duty  of  repentance.  It  is  of  the  hrst 
importance  that  the  exact  place  and  nature  of 
this  duty  should  be  accurately  defined ;  for  so 
long  as  there  is  any  thing  of  misapprehension,  or 
mistake,  in  regard  to  repentance,  there  can  be 
no  full  appreciation  of  the  proffered  mercies  of 
the  Gospel.  It  seems  to  be  too  common  an  opi- 
nion, that  repentance  is  a  kind  of  preparation,  or 
preliminary,  which  men  are  in  a  great  degree  to 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  199 

effect  for  themselves  before  they  can  go  to  Christ 
lis  a  mediator  and  propitiation.  Repentance  is 
regarded  as  a  something  which  they  have  to  do, 
a  condition  they  have  to  perform,  in  order  that 
they  may  be  fitted  to  apply  to  the  Redeemer,  and 
ask  a  share  in  the  blessings  which  he'  purchased 
for  mankind.  We  do  not,  of  course,  deny  that 
there  must  be  repentance  before  there  can  be 
forgiveness  ;  and  that  it  is  only  to  the  broken  and 
contrite  heart  that  Christ  extends  the  fruits  of  his 
passion.  We  say  to  every  man  who  may  be  in- 
quiring as  to  the  pardon  of  sin,  except  you  repent 
you  cannot  be  forgiven.  But  the  question  is, 
whether  a  man  must  wait  till  he  has  repented 
before  he  applies  to  Christ ;  wiiether  repentance* 
is  a  preliminary  which  he  has  to  effect,  ere  he 
may  venture  to  seek  to  a  mediator.  And  it  is 
here,  as  we  think,  that  the  mistake  lies,  a  mis- 
take which  turns  repentance  into  a  kind  of  ob- 
stacle between  the  sinner  and  Christ. 

The  scriptural  doctrine  in  regard  to  repentance 
is  not,  that  a  man  must  repent  in  order  to  his  be- 
ing qualified  to  go  to  Christ ;  it  is  rather,  that  he 
must  go  to  Christ  in  order  to  his  being  enabled 
to  repent.  And  the  difference  between  these  pro- 
positions is  manifest  and  fundamental.  There 
would  be  no  virtue  in  our  repentance,  even  if  wre 
could  repent  of  ourselves,  to  recommend  us  to 
the  favor  of  the  Redeemer ;  but  there  goes  forth 


200  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

virtue  from  the  Redeemer  himself,  strengthening 
us  for  that  repentance  which  is  alone  genuine 
and  acceptable.  St.  Peter  sufficiently  laid  down 
this  doctrine,  when  he  said  of  Christ  to  the  high- 
priest  and  Sadducees,  "  him  hath  God  exalted 
with  his  right  hand  to  he  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour, 
for  to  give  repentance  to  Israel,  and  forgiveness 
of  sins."  Here  repentance  is  stated  to  be  as  much 
the  gift  of  the  glorified  Christ  as  forgiveness — 
a  statement  inconsistent  with  the  notion,  that  re- 
pentance is  something  which  must  be  effected 
without  Christ,  as  a  ground  on  which  to  rest  our 
application  to  him  for  pardon.  We  rather  ga- 
ther from  these  words  of  the  apostle,  that  we 
can  no  more  repent  without  Christ  than  be  par- 
doned without  Christ :  from  him  comes  the  grace 
of  contrition  as  well  as  the  cleansing  of  expiation. 

92.  Repentance  not  Meritorious. 

You  will  find  one  man  thinking,  that,  if  he  re- 
pent, he  shall  be  pardoned.  In  other  words,  he 
supposes  that  there  is  a  virtue  in  repentance 
which  causes  it  to  procure  forgiveness.  Thus  re- 
pentance is  exhibited  as  meritorious  J  and  how 
shall  we  simply  prove  that  it  is  not  meritorious  I 
Why,  allowing  that  man  can  repent  of  himself, 
which  he  cannot,  what  is  the  repentance  on  which 
he  presumes  1  What  is  there  in  it  of  his  own  1 
The  tears  1  they  are  but  the  dew  of  an  eye  which 


EIBLE    THOUGHTS.  201 

is  God's.  The  sighs  1  they  are  but  the  heavings 
of  a  heart  which  is  God's.  The  resolutions  1  they 
are  but  the  workings  of  faculties  which  are  God's. 
The  amendment  1  it  is  but  the  better  employ- 
ment of  a  life  which  is  God's.  W  here  then  is  the 
merit  1  O,  find  something  which  is,  at  the  same 
time,  human  and  excellent  in  the  offering,  and 
you  may  speak  of  desert.  But,  until  then,  away 
with  the  notion  of  there  being  merit  in  repent- 
ance, seeing  that  the  penitent  man  must  say, 
?  All  things  come  of  thee,  and  of  thine  own^  O 
God,  do  I  give  thee." 

93.     Conviction  and  Conversion. 

There  are  many  who  have  known  what  it  is  to 
be  oppressed  with  apprehensions  of  God's  wrath 
against  sin.  They  have  passed  through  that 
dreary  season  when  conscience,  often  success- 
fully resisted  or  dragged  into  slumber,  mightily 
asserts  its  authority,  arrays  the  transgressions 
of  a  life,  and  anticipates  the  penalties  of  an  eter- 
nity. And  we  say  of  the  man  who  is  suffering 
from  conviction  of  sin,  that  it  is  more  truly  night 
with  him,  the  night  of  the  soul,  than  with  the 
most  wretched  of  those  on  whom  lie  the  burdens 
of  temporal  wo.  And  natural  theology  can  oiler 
no  encouragement  in  this  utter  midnight.  It  may 
have  done  its  part  in  producing  the  convictions, 
but,    in  so  doing,  must  have  exhausted  its  re* 


202  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

sources.  All  its  efforts  must  have  been  directed 
to  the  furnishing  demonstrations  of  the  inflexible 
government  of  a  God  of  justice  and  righteous- 
ness ;  and  the  more  powerful  these  demonstra- 
tions, the  more  would  they  shut  up  the  trans- 
gressor to  the  certainty  of  destruction.  And,  ne- 
vertheless, after  a  time,  you  find  the  man  who 
had  been  brought  into  so  awful  a  darkness,  and 
for  whose  comfort  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained 
from  natural  theology,  walking  in  gladness,  with 
a  lightened  heart  and  a  buoyant  spirit.  What 
could  not  be  found  in  the  stores  of  natural  theo- 
logy, has  been  found  in  those  of  revealed  intelli- 
gence, that  God  can,  at  the  same  time,  be  just 
and  a  justifier;  that  sinners  can  be  pardoned,  and 
sins  not  go  unpunished.  Therefore  is  it  that  he 
who  was  in  darkness,  the  darkness  of  the  soul,  is 
now  lifting  up  his  head  with  joy,  and  exulting  in 
hope.  The  Spirit  of  God,  which  produced  tho 
conviction,  has  taken  of  the  things  of  Christ, 
and,  showing  them  to  the  soul,  made  them  effec- 
tual to  conversion.  And  we  call  upon  you  to 
compare  the  man  in  these  two  estates.  With  his 
consciousness  of  the  evil  of  sin.  heightened,  ra- 
ther than  diminished,  you  find  him  changed  from 
the  desponding  into  the  triumphant ;  exhibiting, 
in  the  largest  measure,  the  accomplishment  of  tho 
words,  that  there  shall  be  given  "  beauty  for 
ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  and  the  gar- 


EIBLE    THOUGHTS.  203 

ment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness.*'  You  can 
offer  no  account  of  this  surprising  transforma- 
tion, whilst  you  search  for  its  reasons  in  natural 
causes.  But  when  yoit  appeal  to  the  workings  of 
Omnipotence  ;  when  you  tell  us  of  a  propitiation 
for  sin  ;  when  you  refer  to  a  divine  Agent,  whoso 
special  office  it  is  to  bring  men  to  put  faith  in  a 
sacrifice  which  reconciled  a  guilty  world  to  its 
Creator — then  you  leave  no  cause  far  surprise, 
that,  from  a  soul  round  which  had  gathered  deep 
and  stern  shadows,  there  should  be  ascending 
the  rich  notes  of  praise,  and  the  stirring  strains 
of  hope. 

94.  Faith. 

Faith — saving  faith — whatever  other  defini- 
tions may  be  framed — is  best  described  as  that 
act  of  the  soul  by  which  the  whole  man  is  given 
over  to  the  guardianship  of  the  Mediator.  He 
who  thus  resigns  himself  to  Jesus  avouches  two 
things ;  first,  his  belief  that  he  needs  a  protector  ; 
secondly,  his  belief  that  Christ  is  just  that  pro- 
tector which  his  necessities  require.  And  though 
you  may  resolve  saving  faith  into  more  numerous 
elements,  you  will  find  that  these  two  are  not 
only  the  chief,  but  that  they  include  all  other 3 
out  of  which  it  is  constituted ;  so  that  he  who 
believes  in  Christ,  gives  himself  up  to  the  keep- 
ing of  Christ. 


£04  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

95.  Experience  the  Touchstone  of  Faith* 

We  may  say  of  experience,  that  it  is  a  kind  of 
touchstone  to  which  faitrl  should  be  brought* 
For  whilst  wc  would  set  ourselves  most  earnest 
ly,  and  most  assiduously,  against  the  resolving 
religion  into  a  mere  thing  of  frames  and  of  feel- 
ings, we  are  bound  to  hold  that  it  is  no  matter 
of  frigid  or  heartless  speculation,  but  that  a  real 
christian  must  have  a  real  sense  of  the  power  and 
preciousness  of  Christ.  We  consider  that  it  would 
be  altogether  idle  to  maintain  that  a  man  may 
believe  in  Christ  as  a  Saviour  for  months  or 
years,  and  yet  have  no  witness  in  himself  to  the 
energies  of  that  Being  towards  whom  his  faith  is 
directed.  Faith  is  that  mighty,  though  myste- 
rious principle,  which  attaches  a  man  to  Christ. 
And  we  may  fairly  set  it  clown  as  impossible  that 
there  should  be  actual  membership  between  our- 
selves and  the  Mediator,  and  yet  nothing  of  per- 
sonal practical  acquaintance  with  his  sufficiencies 
for  the  office  which  he  fills.  He  who  believes  will 
taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  gracious  ;  and  know- 
ledge being  superadded  to  faith,  he  will  be  his 
own  testimony  that  the  Bible  is  no  cunningly 
devised  fable ;  but  that  Christ  crucified,  though 
unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  unto  the 
Greeks  foolishness,  is  nevertheless  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  Cod. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  205 

96.     Justification. 

Some  men  will  speak  of  being  justified  by 
faith,  till  they  come  to  ascribe  merit  to  faith. 
H  By  faith,"  is  interpreted  as  though  it  meant  on 
account  of  faith  ;  and  thus  the  great  truth  is  lost 
sight  of,  that  we  are  justified  freely  w  through 
the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ."  But  how  can 
faith  be  a  meritorious  act  1  What  is  faith  but 
such  an  assent  of  the  understanding  to  God's 
word  as  binds  the  heart  to  God's  service!  And 
whose  is  the  understanding,  if  it  be  not  God's  1 
Whose  is  the  heart,  if  it  be  not  God's  %  And  if 
faith  be  nothing  but  the  rendering  to  God  that  in- 
tellect and  that  energy  which  we-  have  received 
from  God,  how  can  faith  deserve  of  God  1  O,  as 
wTith  repentance,  so  with  faith;  away  with  the 
notion  of  merit.  He  who  believes,  so  that  he  can 
dare  the  grave  and  grasp  eternity,  must  pour 
forth  the  confession,  M  all  things  come  of  thee, 
and  of  thine  own,  O  God,  do  I  give  thee  !" 

97.    Why  is  the  justified  man  not  at  once 
removed  to  Glory  ? 

Inasmuch  as  the  continuance  of  the  justified 
upon  earth  affords  them  opportunity  of  rising 
higher  in  the  scale  of  future  blessedness,  there  is 
a  goodness  in  the  arrangement  which  is  vastly 
more  than  a  counterpoise  to  all  the  evils  with 
which  it  seems  charged.  The  justified  man, 
18 


206  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

translated  at  the  instant  of  justification,  could 
receive  nothing,  we  may  think,  but  the  lower  and 
less  splendid  portions.  He  would  have  had  no 
time  for  glorifying  God  in  the  active  duties  of  a 
christian  profession ;  but  the  remaining  in  the 
flesh  after  justification  allows  of  that  growth  in 
grace,  that  progress  in  holiness,  that  adorning  in 
all  things  the  doctrine  of  the  Saviour,  to  which 
shall  be  awarded,  at  the  judgment,  chief  places 
in  the  kingdom  of  Messiah.  On  the  supposition 
that  no  period  intervene,  there  can  be  no  aug- 
mentations of  happiness  j  whereas,  on  that  of 
hoping  and  waiting,  there  may  be  daily  advances 
in  holiness,  and  therefore  daily  accessions  to  a 
never-ending  bliss. 

98.  Believers  triumph  over  Satan. 
If  two  beings  are  antagonists,  he  who  deci- 
sively overcomes  bruises  the  head  of  his  oppo- 
nent. But  the  believer  and  the  serpent  are  anta- 
gonists. The  believer  gains  completely  the  mas- 
tery over  the  serpent.  And,  therefore,  the  result 
of  the  contest  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  prediction 
that  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  head 
of  the  serpent.  Oh,  if,  as  we  well  know,  the  re- 
pentance of  a  single  sinner  send  a  new  and  ex-» 
quisite  delight  down  the  ranks  of  the  hosts  of 
heaven,  and  cause  the  sweeping  of  a  rich  and 
glorious  anthem  from  the  countless  harps  of  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  207 

sky,  can  we  doubt  that  the  same  event  spreads 
consternation  through  the  legions  of  fallen  spi- 
rits, and  strikes,  like  a  death-blow,  on  their 
haughty  and  malignant  leader  1  Aye,  and  we  be- 
lieve that  never  is  Satan  so  taught  his  subjuga- 
ted estate,  as  when  a  soul,  which  he  had  counted 
as  his  own,  escapes  rf  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare 
of  the  fowlers,"  and  seeks  and  finds  protection 
in  Jesus.  If  it  be  then  that  Christ  sees  u  of  the 
travail  of  his  soul,"  it  must  be  then  that  the  ser- 
pent tastes  all  the  bitterness  of  defeat.  And 
when  the  warfare  is  over,  and  the  spirit,  which 
he  hath  longed  to  destroy,  soars  away,  convoyed 
by  the  angels  which  wait  on  the  heirs  of  salva- 
tion; must  it  not  be  then  that  the  consciousness 
of  lost  mastery  seizes,  with  crushing  force,  on 
the  proud  foe  of  our  race ;  and  does  not  that 
fierce  cry  of  disappointment  which  seems  to  fol- 
low the  ascending  soul,  causing  her  to  feel  her- 
self only  r<  scarcely  saved,"  testify  that,  in  thus 
winning  a  heritage  of  glory,  Christ  in  behalf  of 
the  believer  hath  bruised  the  head  of  the  serpent  1 
Though  the  believer,  like  the  unbeliever,  must 
submit  to  the  power  of  death,  and  tread  the  dark 
valley  of  that  curse  which  still  rests  on  our  na- 
ture, is  there  experienced  more  than  a  very  par- 
tial injury  in  this  dissolution  of  humanity  1  It  is 
an  injury — for  we  go  not  with  those  who  would 
idolize,  or  soften  down,  death — that  the  soul  must 


208  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

be  detached  from  the  body,  and  sent  out,  a  wi- 
dowed thing,  on  the  broad  journeyings  of  eter- 
nity. It  is  an  injury,  that  this  curious  framework 
of  matter,  as  much  redeemed  by  Christ  as  the 
giant-guest  which  it  encases,  must  be  taken 
down,  joint  by  joint  and  rafter  by  rafter,  and, 
resolved  into  its  original  elements,  lose  every 
trace  of  having  been  human.  But  what,  we  again 
say,  is  the  extent  of  this  injury  1  The  foot  of 
the  destroyer  shall  be  set  upon  the  body  ;  and  he 
shall  stamp  till  he  have  ground  it  into  powder, 
and  dispersed  it  to  the  winds.  But  he  cannot 
annihilate  a  lonely  particle.  He  can  put  no  ar- 
rest on  that  germinating  process  which  shall  yet 
cause  the  valleys  and  mountains  of  this  globe  to 
stand  thick  with  a  harvest  of  flesh.  He  cannot 
hinder  my  resurrection.  And  when  the  soul,  over 
which  he  hath  had  no  power,  rushes  into  the 
body  which  he  shall  be  forced  to  resign,  and  the 
child  of  God  stands  forth,  a  man,  yet  immortal, 
compound  of  flesh  and  spirit,  but  each  pure,  each 
indestructible  ; — oh,  though  Satan  may  have  dis- 
turbed his  peace  during  a  long  earthly  pilgrim- 
age ;  though  he  may  have  marred  his  happiness 
by  successful  temptation ;  though  he  may  have 
detained  for  centuries  his  body  in  corruption ; 
will  not  the  inflicted  injury  appear  to  have  been 
trivial  and  insignificant,  when  compared  with  the 
iinal  victory,  and  the  glories  which  shall  follow 
its  achievement. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  209 

99.  Faith  of  experienced  Christians  proof  against 
the  assaults  of  Infidelity. 

If  you  sent  the  most  accomplished  of  infidels 
into  the  cottage  of  the  meanest  of  our  peasants, 
or  into  the  workshop  of  the  poorest  of  our  arti- 
sans,— the  peasant,  or  the  artisan,  being  supposed 
a  true  believer  in  Christ — we  should  entertain 
not  the  slightest  apprehension  as  to  the  issue  of  a 
conflict  between  parties  apparently  so  ill-match- 
ed ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  should  await  the  result 
in  the  most  perfect  assurance,  that  though  there 
might  be  no  taking  off  the  objections  of  the  infi- 
del, there  would  be  no  overthrowing  the  faith  of 
the  believer.  Scepticism  can  make  no  way  where 
there  is  real  Christianity  ,•  all  its  triumphs  are  won 
on  the  field  of  nominal  Christianity.  And  it  is  a 
phenomenon  which  might,  at  first  sight,  well 
draw  our  amazement,  that  just  where  we  should 
look  for  the  least  of  resistance,  and  where  we 
should  conclude  that,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course, 
the  sophistry  of  the  infidel  might  enter  and  carry 
every  thing  before  it — that  there  we  find  a  power 
of  withstanding  which  is  perhaps  even  greater 
than  could  be  exhibited  in  a  higher  and  more 
educated  circle — so  that  the  believing  mechanic 
shall  outdo  the  believing  philosopher  in  the  vigor 
with  which  he  repels  the  insinuations  of  a  sceptic. 
We  are  not  arguing  that  the  mechanic  will  make 
18* 


210  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

the  most  way  in  confuting  the  sceptic.  On  the 
contrary,  there  will  he  a  vast  probability  against 
his  being  able  to  expose  the  fallacy  of  a  solitary 
objection.  Bat  then  he  will  take  refuge  simply  in 
his  experience.  He  will  not,  as  the  philosopher 
may  do,  divide  himself  between  experience  and 
argument.  If  he  have  no  apparatus  at  his  com- 
mand with  which  to  meet,  and  dissect,  and  lay 
bare,  a  hollow,  but  plausible  reasoning,  he  has 
his  own  knowledge  to  which  to  turn — and  then 
the  whole  question  lies  between  a  theory  and  a 
matter-of-fact.  His  knowledge  is  matter-of-fact — 
and  argument  will  always  be  worthless  if  it  set 
itself  against  matter-of-fact.  He  knows  whom  ha 
hath  believed.  There  may  be  in  this  knowledge 
none  of  the  elements  of  another  man's  convic- 
tion,— but  there  is  to  himself  the  material  of  an 
overpowering  assurance.  It  might  be  quite  im- 
possible to  take  this  knowledge,  and  make  it  avail- 
able as  an  argument  with  which  to  bear  down  on 
his  infidel  assailant.  It  is  a  visionary  thing  to  his 
opponent — but  it  is  a  matter-of-fact  to  himself. 
And  we  contend  that  in  this  lies  the  grand  secret 
of  a  poor  man's  capability  of  resisting  the  advanc- 
ings  of  infidelity.  It  is  no  theory  with  him  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ.  It  is  no  speculation  that  the 
Gospel  offers  a  remedy  for  those  moral  disorders 
which  sin  hath  fastened  on  the  creature.  He  has 
not  merely  read  the  Bible — he  has  felt  the  Bible. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  211 

He  has  not  merely  heard  of  the  medicine — he 
has  taken  the  medicine.  And  now,  we  again  say, 
when  you  would  argue  with  him  against  Chris- 
tianity, you  argue  with  him  against  matter-of-fact. 
You  argue  against  the  existence  of  fire,  to  a  man 
who  has  been  scorched  by  the  flame  ;  and  against 
the  existence  of  water,  to  a  man  who  has  been 
drenched  in  the  depths ;  and  against  the  existence 
of  light,  to  a  man  who  has  looked  out  on  the 
landscape  ;  and  argument  can  make  no  head  when 
it  sets  itself  against  matter-of-fact. 

If  I  had  gone  to  a  physician — and  if  I  had  re- 
ceived from  him  a  medicine  which  brought  the 
health  back  into  my  limbs — what  success  would 
attend  the  most  clever  of  reasoners  who  should 
set  himself  to  prove  to  me  that  no  such  being  as 
this  physician  had  ever  existed,  or  that  there  was 
no  virtue  whatsoever  in  the  draught  which  had 
Avrought  in  me  with  so  healing  an  energy  \  He 
might  argue  with  a  keenness  and  a  shrewdness 
which  left  me  quite  overmatched.  There  might 
be  an  ingenuity  in  his  historic  doubts  with  regard 
to  the  existence  of  the  physician  ;  and  there  might 
be  an  apparent  science  in  his  analysis  of  the  me- 
dicine, and  his  exposure  of  its  worthlessness ; 
and  I,  on  my  part,  might  be  quite  unable  to  meet 
him  on  his  own  ground,  to  show  the  fault  and 
the  falsehood  of  his  reasoning.  But  you  can  ne- 
ver suppose  that  my  incapacity  to  refute  argu- 


212  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ment  would  lead  me  to  the  giving  up  a  matter-of- 
fact.  I  should  just  be  in  the  case  of  the  man  in 
the  Gospel,  to  whom  Christ  had  given  sight,  and 
whom  the  Pharisees  plied  with  doubts,  derived 
from  the  presumed  sinfulness  of  the  Saviour,  in 
regard  to  the  possibility  of  the  miracle.  I  should 
answer  with  this  man,  Whether  he  be  a  sinner  or 
no,  I  know  not ;  one  thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I 
was  blind,  now  I  see.  And  precisely,  in  like  man- 
ner, a  believer,  wTith  no  other  resources  at  his 
disposal,  can  throw  himself  unhesitatingly  on  his 
own  experience  ;  and  this,  rendering  Christianity 
to  him  all  matter-of-fact,  makes  him  proof  against 
the  subtleties  of  the  most  insidious  infidelity. 

God  hath  woven  into  true  religion  all  the  ele- 
ments of  a  successful  resistance  to  cavil  and  ob- 
jection, leaving  not  the  very  poorest  and  the 
most  illiterate  of  his  people  open  to  the  inroad 
of  the  enemies  of  Christianity ;  but  causing  that 
there  rise  up  from  their  own  experience  such 
ramparts  of  strength,  that  if  they  have  no  artil- 
lery with  which  to  battle  at  the  adversary,  there 
is  at  least  no  risk  of  their  own  citadel  being 
stormed. 

100.  Believers  the  salt  of  the  earth. 

We  believe  that  when  Christ  declared  of  his 
followers,  M  ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,"  he  de- 
livered a  saying  which  described,  with  singular 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  £13 

fidelity,  the  power  of  righteousness  to  stay  and 
correct  the  disorganizations  of  mankind.  As 
applied  to  the  apostles,  the  definition  was  espe- 
cially accurate.  There  lay  before  them  a  worM 
distinguished  by  nothing  so  much  as  by  corrup- 
tion of  doctrine  and  manners.  Though  philoso- 
phy was  at  its  height ;  though  reason  had  achiev- 
ed her  proudest  triumphs ;  though  arts  were  in 
their  maturity ;  though  eloquence  was  then  most 
finished,  and  poetry  most  harmonious ;  there 
reigned  over  the  whole  face  of  the  globe  a  tre- 
mendous ignorance  of  God :  and  if  humanity 
were  not  actually  an  unsound  and  putrid  mass,  it 
had  in  it  every  element  of  decay ;  so  that,  if  long- 
er abandoned  to  itself,  it  must  have  fallen  into 
incurable  disease,  and  become  covered  with  the 
livid  spots  of  total  dissolution.  And  when,  by 
divine  commission,  the  disciples  penetrated  the 
recesses  of  this  mass,  carrying  with  them  prin- 
ciples and  truths  exactly  calculated  to  stay  the 
moral  ruin  which  was  spreading  with  fearful  ra- 
pidity— when  they  went  forth,  the  bearers  of  ce- 
lestial communications  which  taught  the  soul  to 
feel  herself  immortal,  and,  therefore,  indestructi- 
ble ;  which  lifted  even  the  body  out  of  the  grasp 
of  decay,  teaching  that  bone,  and  sinew,  and  flesh 
should  be  made  at  last  gloriously  incorruptible — 
when,  we  say,  the  disciples  thus  applied  to  the 
world  a  remedy,  perfect  in  every  respect,  against 


214  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

those  tendencies  to  corruption  which  threatened 
to  turn  our  globe  into  the  lazar-house  of  crea- 
tion ;  were  they  not  to  be  regarded  as  the  puri- 
fiers and  preservers  of  men,  and  could  any  title 
be  more  just  than  one  which  defined  them,  in 
their  strivings  to  overspread  a  diseased  world 
with  healthf ulness,  as  literally  "the  salt  of  the 
earth  1" 

But  it  holds  good  in  every  age  that  true  be- 
lievers are  "  the  salt  of  the  earth."  Whilst  the 
contempt  and  hatred  of  the  wicked  follow  inces- 
santly the  professors  of  godliness,  and  the  ene- 
mies of  Christ,  if  ability  were  commensurate  with 
malice,  would  sweep  from  the  globe  all  know- 
ledge of  the  Gospel,  we  can  venture  to  assert 
that  the  unrighteous  owe  the  righteous  a  debt  of 
obligation  not  to  be  reckoned  up  ;  and  that  it  is 
mainly  because  the  required  ten  are  still  found 
in  the  cities  of  the  plain  that  the  fire-showers 
are  suspended,  and  time  given  for  warding  off  by 
repentance  the  doom. 

101.    Hope. 

Hope  is  the  memorial  of  a  covenant  between 
man  and  his  Maker,  telling  us  that  we  are  born 
for  immortality ;  destined,  unless  we  sepulchre 
our  greatness,  to  the  highest  honor  and  noblest 
happiness.  Hope  proves  man  deathless.  It  is  the 
struggle  of  the  soul  breaking  loose  from  what  is 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  215 

perishable,  and  attesting  her  eternity.  And  when 
the  eye  of  the  mind  is  turned  upon  Christ,  "  de- 
livered for  our  offences  and  raised  again  for  our 
justification,"  the  unsubstantial  and  deceitful 
character  is  taken  away  from  hope,  and  it  be- 
comes one  of  the  prime  pieces  of  that  armor  of 
proof  in  which  the  believer  is  arrayed ;  for  St. 
Paul  bids  us  take  M  for  an  helmet  the  hope  of 
salvation."  It  is  not  good  that  a  man  hope  for 
wealth,  since  "  riches  profit  not  in  the  day  of 
wrath  f1  and  it  is  not  good  that  he  hope  for  hu- 
man honors,  since  the  mean  and  mighty  go  down 
to  the  same  burial :  but  it  is  good  that  he  hope 
for  salvation ,  the  meteor  then  gathers  like  a 
golden  halo  round  his  head,  and,  as  he  presses 
forward  in  the  battle-time,  no  weapon  of  the  evil 
one  can  pierce  through  that  helmet. 

102.  Hope  the  anchor  of  the  Soul. 

Suffer  that  we  remind  you  of  the  simile  by 
which  St.  Paul  has  represented  christian  hope ; 
"  which  hope  we  have  as  an  anchor  of  the  soul, 
both  sure  and  stedfast,  and  which  entereth  into 
that  within  the  vail."  The  anchor  is  cast  "within 
the  vail,"  whither  Christ  the  forerunner  is  gone 
before.  And  if  hope  be  fixed  upon  Christ,  the 
Rock  of  Ages,  a  rock  rent,  if  we  may  use  the 
expression,  on  purpose  that  there  might  be  a 
holding-place   for   the   anchors   of   a  perishing 


216  BIBLE    THOUGHTS, 

world,  it  may  well  come  to  pass  that  we  enjoy 
a  calm  as  we  journey  through  life,  and  draw  near 
the  grave.  But  since  "  other  foundation  can  no 
man  lay  than  that  is  laid,"  if  our  anchor  rest  not 
on  this  Rock,  where  is  our  hope,  where  our  peace- 
fulness  1  I  know  of  a  coming  tempest — and  would 
to  God  that  the  young,  more  especially,  might  be 
stirred  by  its  approach  to  repentance  and  righte- 
ousness !  I  know  of  a  coming  tempest  with  which 
the  Almighty  shall  shake  terribly  the  earth ;  the 
sea  and  the  waves  roaring,  and  the  stars  falling 
from  the  heavens.  Then  shall  there  be  a  thousand 
shipwrecks,  and  immensity  be  strewed  with  the 
fragments  of  a  stranded  navy.  Then  shall  vessel 
upon  vessel,  laden  with  reason,  and  high  intelli 
gence,  and  noble  faculty,  be  drifted  to  and  fro, 
shattered  and  dismantled,  and  at  last  thrown  on 
the  shore  as  fuel  for  the  burning.  But  there  are 
ships  which  shall  not  founder  in  this  battle  and 
dissolution  of  the  elements.  There  are  ships 
which  shall  be  in  no  peril  whilst  this,  the  last 
hurricane  which  is  to  sweep  our  creation,  con- 
founds earth,  and  sea,  and  sky  ;  but  which,  when 
the  fury  is  overpast,  and  the  light  of  a  morning 
which  is  to  know  no  night  breaks  gloriously  forth, 
shall  be  found  upon  crystal  and  tranquil  waters, 
resting  beautifully  on  their  shadows.  These  are 
those  which  have  been  anchored  upon  Christ. 
These  are  those — and  may  none  refuse  to  join 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  217 

the  number — who  have  trusted  themselves  to  the 
Mediator,  who  humbled  himself  that  he  might 
lift  up  all  those  that  are  bowed  down,  and  who 
have  therefore  interest  in  every  promise  made  by 
him  whose  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom, 
and  whose  dominion  endureth  throughout  all 
generations. 

103.    The  Anchor  within  the   VaiL 

The  soul  which  is  anchored  in  eternity,  is  like 
the  vessel  which  a  stanch  cable  binds  to  the 
distant  shore,  and  which  gradually  warps  itself 
into  harbor.  There  is  at  once  what  will  keep  her 
stedfast  in  the  storm,  and  advance  her  towards 
the  haven.  Who  knows  not  that  the  dissatisfac- 
tion which  men  always  experience  whilst  en- 
gaged in  the  pursuit  of  earthly  good,  arises 
mainly  from  a  vast  disproportion  between  their 
capacities  for  happiness,  and  that  material  of 
happiness  with  which  they  think  to  fill  them  % 
What  they  hope  for  is  some  good,  respecting 
which  they  might  be  certain,  that,  if  attained,  it 
will  only  disappoint.  And,  therefore;  is  it,  that, 
in  place  of  being  as  an  anchor,  hope  itself  agi- 
tates them,  driving  them  hither  and  thither  like 
ships  without  ballast.  But  it  is  not  thus  with  a 
hope  which  entereth  within  the  vail.  Within  the 
vail  are  laid  up  joys  and  possessions  which  are 
more  than  commensurate  with  men's  capacities 
19 


218  BIBLE    THOUGHTS 

for  happiness  when  stretched  to  the  utmost. 
Within  the  vail  is  a  glory,  such  as  was  never 
proposed  by  ambition  in  its  most  daring  flight ; 
and  a  wealth  such  as  never  passed  before  avarice 
in  its  most  golden  dreams  ;  and  delights,  such  as 
imagination,  when  employed  in  delineating  the 
most  exquisite  pleasures,  hath  never  been  able  to 
array.  And  let  hope  fasten  on  this  glory,  this 
wealth,  these  delights,  and  presently  the  soul,  as 
though  she  felt  that  the  objects  of  desire  were 
as  ample  as  herself,  acquires  a  fixedness  of  pur- 
pose, a  steadiness  of  aim,  a  combination  of  en- 
ergies, which  contrast  strangely  with  the  incon- 
stancy, the  vacillation,  the  distraction,  which  have 
made  her  hitherto  the  sport  of  every  wind  and 
every  wave.  The  object  of  hope  being  immea- 
surable, inexhaustible,  hope  clings  to  this  object 
with  a  tenacity  which  it  cannot  manifest  when 
grasping  only  the  insignificant  and  unsubstantial ; 
and  thus  the  soul  is  bound,  we  might  almost  say 
indissolubly,  to  the  unchangeable  realities  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  saints.  And  can  you  marvel, 
if,  with  her  anchor  thus  dropped  within  the  vail, 
she  is  not  to  be  driven  from  her  course  by  the 
wildest  of  the  storms  which  yet  rage  without  1 
There  is  something  exquisitely  beautiful  in  the 
idea  that  the  anchor  has  not  been  dropped  in  the 
rough  waters  which  the  christian  has  to  navigate. 
The  anchor  rests  where  there  is  one  eternal  calm, 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  219 

and  its  hold  is  on  a  rock  which  no  action  of  the 
waves  can  wTear  down.  You  may  say  of*  christian 
hope,  that  it  is  a  principle  which  gives  fixedness 
to  the  soul,  because  it  can  appeal  to  an  ever-liv- 
ing, ever-prevalent  Intercessor,  who  is  pledged 
to  make  good  its  amplest  expectations.  It  is  the 
hope  of  joys  which  have  been  purchased  at  a 
cost  which  it  is  not  possible  to  compute,  and 
which  are  delivered  into  a  guardianship  which  it 
is  not  possible  to  defeat.  It  is  the  hope  of  an  in- 
heritance, our  title  to  which  has  been  written  in 
the  blood  of  the  Mediator,  and  our  entrance  into 
which  that  Mediator  ever  lives  to  secure.  And, 
therefore,  is  it,  that  we  affirm  of  christian  hope, 
that  it  is  precisely  adapted  to  the  preventing  the 
soul  from  being  borne  away  by  the  gusts  of  temp- 
tation, or  swallowed  up  in  the  deep  waters  of 
trial.  It  is  more  than  hope.  It  is  hope  with  all  its 
attractiveness,  and  with  none  of  its  uncertainty. 
It  is  hope  with  all  that  beauty  and  brilliancy  by 
which  men  are  fascinated,  and  with  none  of  ^hat 
delusiveness  by  which  they  are  deceived.  It  is 
hope  with  its  bland  and  soothing  voice,  but  that 
voice  whispering  nothing  but  truth  ;  hope,  with 
its  untired  wing,  but  that  wing  lifting  only  to  re- 
gions which  have  actual  existence  ,*  hope,  with 
its  fairy  pencil,  but  that  pencil  painting  only 
what  really  flashes  with  the  gold  and  vermillion. 


220  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

104.  Hope,  the  anchor  of  the  christian's  soul 
against  false  doctrine. 

There  is  great  risk  of  our  being  carried  about, 
as  an  apostle  expresses  it,  rt  with  every  wind  of 
doctrine  ;"  and  whatever,  therefore,  tends  to  the 
keeping  us  in  the  right  faith,  in  spite  of  gusts  of 
error,  must  deserve  to  be  characterized  as  an  an- 
chor of  the  soul.  But,  we  may  unhesitatingly  de- 
clare, that  there  is  a  power,  the  very  strongest, 
in  the  hope  of  salvation  through  Christ,  of  ena- 
bling us  to  stand  firm  against  the  incursions  of 
heresy.  The  man  who  has  this  hope  will  have  no 
ear  for  doctrines  which,  in  the  least  degree,  de- 
preciate the  person  or  work'  of  the  Mediator. 
You  take  away  from  him  all  that  he  holds  most 
precious,  if  you  could  once  shake  his  belief  in 
the  atonement.  It  is  not  that  he  is  afraid  of  ex- 
amining the  grounds  of  his  own  confidence  ;  it  is, 
that,  having  well  examined  them,  and  certified 
himself  as  to  their  being  irreversible,  his  confi- 
dence has  become  wound  up,  as  it  were,  with  his 
being  ;  and  it  is  like  assaulting  his  existence,  to 
assault  his  hope.  The  hope  presupposes  faith  in 
the  Saviour ;  and  faith  has  reasons  for  the  per- 
suasion that  Jesus  is  God's  Son,  and  '*  able  to 
save  to  the  uttermost :"  and  though  the  individual 
is  ready  enough  to  probe  these  reasons,  and  to 
bring  them  to  any  fitting  criterion,  it  is  evident, 
that  where  faith  has  once  taken  possession,  and 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  221 

generated  hope,  he  has  so  direct  and  overwhelm- 
ing an  interest  in  holding  fast  truth,  that  it  must 
be  more  than  a  specious  objection,  or  a  well- 
turned  cavil,  which  will  prevail  to  the  loosening 
of  his  grasp.  And  therefore  do  we  affirm  of  the 
hope  of  salvation,  that  he  who  has  it,  is  little 
likely  to  be  carried  about  with  every  wind  of 
doctrine.  We  scarcely  dare  think  that  those  who 
are  christians  only  in  profession  and  theory, 
would  retain  truth  without  wavering,  if  exposed 
to  the  machinations  of  insidious  reasoners. 
They  do  not  feel  their  everlasting  portion  so  de- 
pendent on  the  doctrine  of  redemption  through 
the  blood  and  righteousness  of  a  Surety,  that, 
to  shake  this  doctrine,  is  to  make  them  casta- 
ways for  eternity ;  and  therefore,  neither  can 
they  oppose  that  resistance  to  assault  which  will 
be  offered  by  others  who  know  that  it  is  their 
immortality  they  are  called  to  surrender.  You 
may  look,  then,  on  an  individual,  who,  apparent- 
ly unprepared  for  a  vigorous  defence  of  his  creed, 
is  yet  not  to  be  overborne  by  the  strongest  onset 
of  heresy.  And  you  may  think  to  account  for  his 
firmness  by  resolving  it  into  a  kind  of  obstinacy, 
which  makes  him  inaccessible  to  argument ;  and 
thus  take  from  his  constancy  all  moral  excel- 
lence, by  representing  it  as  imperviousness  to  all 
moral  attack.  But  we  have  a  better  explanation 
to  propose  ;  one  which  does  not  proceed  on  the 
19* 


222  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

unwarranted  assumption,  that  there  must  be  in- 
sensibility where  there  has  not  been  defeat.  We 
know  of  the  individual,  that  he  has  fled  for  refuge 
to  lay  hold  on  the  hope  set  before  him  in  the 
Gospel.  And  you  may  say  of  hope,  that  it  is  a 
shadowy  and  airy  thing,  not  adapted  to  the  keep- 
ing man  firm ;  but  we  assert,  on  the  contrary,  of 
the  hope  of  salvation,  that  he  who  has  grasped  it, 
feels  that  he  has  grasped  what  is  substantial  and 
indestructible  ;  and  that  henceforward,  to  wrench 
away  this  hope  would  be  like  wrenching  away 
the  rafter  from  the  drowning  man,  who  knows 
that,  if  he  loosen  his  hold,  he  must  perish  in  the 
waters. 

105.  Hope,  the  Anchor  of  the  Christian's  soul 
under  trouble. 

When  tribulation  comes,  and  the  crested  waves 
are  swelling  higher  and  higher,  why  should  you 
expect  him  to  be  driven  back,  or  swallowed  up  % 
Is  it  the  loss  of  property  with  which  he  is  visited, 
and  which  threatens  to  shake  his  dependence 
upon  God  \  Hope  whispers  that  he  has  in  heaven 
an  enduring  substance ;  and  he  takes  joyfully  the 
spoiling  of  his  goods.  Is  it  the  loss  of  friends  \ 
He  sorrows  not  tr  even  as  others  which  have  no 
hope,"  but  is  comforted  by  the  knowledge,  that 
u  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring 
with  him."    Is  it  sickness — is  it  the  treachery  of 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  223 

friends — is  it  the  failure  of  cherished  plans,  which 
hangs  the  firmament  with  blackness,  and  works 
the  waters  into  fury  1  None  of  these  things  move 
him ;  for  hope  assures  him  that  his  "  light  afflic- 
tion, which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for 
him  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory."  Is  it  death,  which,  advancing  in  its  awful- 
ness,  would  beat  down  his  confidence,  and  snap 
his  cordage,  and  send  him  adrift  1  His  hope  is  a 
hope  full  of  immortality  :  he  knows  "  in  whom 
he  hath  believed,  and  is  persuaded  that  he  is  able 
to  keep  that  which  he  hath  committed  unto  him 
against  that  day."  And  thus,  from  whatever  point 
the  tempest  rages,  there  is  a  power  in  that  hope 
which  God  hath  implanted,  of  holding  fast  the 
christian,  and  preventing  his  casting  away  that 
confidence  which  hath  great  recompence  of  re- 
ward. We  can  bid  you  look  upon  him,  when,  on 
every  human  calculation,  so  fierce  is  the  hurri- 
cane, and  so  wrought  are  the  waves  into  mad- 
ness, there  would  seem  no  likelihood  of  his  avoid- 
ing the  making  shipwreck  of  his  faith.  And  when 
you  find,  that,  in  place  of  being  stranded  or  en- 
gulfed, he  resists  the  wild  onset,  and,  if  he  do 
not  for  the  moment  advance,  keeps  the  way  he 
has  made,  oh !  then  we  have  an  easy  answer  to 
give  to  inquiries  as  to  the  causes  of  this  unex- 
pected stedfastness.  We  do  not  deny  the  strength 
of  the  storm,  and  the  might  of  the  waters ;  but 


2QAt  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

we  tell  you  of  a  hope  which  grows  stronger  and 
stronger  as  tribulation  increases  :  stronger,  be- 
cause sorrow  is  the  known  discipline  for  the  en- 
joyment of  the  object  of  this  hope;  stronger,  be- 
cause the  proved  worthlessness  of  what  is  earth- 
ly serves  to  fix  the  affections  more  firmly  on 
what  is  heavenly ;  stronger,  inasmuch  as  there 
are  promises  of  God,  which  seem  composed  on 
purpose  for  the  season  of  trouble,  and  which, 
then  grasped  by  faith,  throw  new  vigor  into 
hope.  And  certainly,  if  we  may  affirm  all  this 
of  the  hope  of  a  christian,  there  is  no  room  for 
wonder  that  he  rides  out  the  hurricane ;  for  such 
hope  is  manifestly  an  anchor  of  the  soul,  and 
that,  too,  sure  and  stedfast. 

106.    Assurance, 

Whilst  it  is  the  business  of  a  christian  minis- 
ter to  guard  you  against  presumption,  and  an  un- 
calculating  confidence  that  you  are  safe  for  eter- 
nity, it  is  also  his  duty  to  rouse  you  to  a  sense  of 
your  privileges,  and  to  press  on  you  the  import- 
ance of  ascertaining  your  title  to  immortality. 
We  think  it  not  necessarily  a  proof  of  christian 
humility,  that  you  should  be  always  in  doubt  of 
your  spiritual  state,  and  so  live  uncertain  whether, 
in  the  event  of  death,  you  would  pass  into  glory. 
We  are  bound  to  declare,  that  Scripture  makes 
the  marks  of  true  religion  clear  and  decisive  ; 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  225 

and  that,  if  we  will  but  apply  faithfully  and  fear- 
lessly the  several  criteria  furnished  by  its  state- 
ments, it  cannot  remain  a  problem,  which  the  last 
judgment  only  can  solve,  whether  it  be  the  broad 
way  or  the  narrow  in  which  v/e  now  walk.  But, 
nevertheless,  the  best  assurance  to  which  a  chris- 
tian can  attain,  must  leave  salvation  a  thing 
chiefly  of  hope.  We  find  it  expressly  declared 
by  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans,  M  we  are  saved  by 
hope."  And  they  who  are  most  persuaded,  and 
that  too  by  scriptural  warrant,  that  they  are  in  a 
state  of  salvation,  can  never  declare  themselves, 
except  in  the  most  limited  sense,  in  its  fruition 
or  enjoyment,  but  must  always  live  mainly  upon 
hope,  though  with  occasional  foretastes  of  coming 
delights.  They  can  reach  the  conclusion — and  a 
comforting  and  noble  conclusion  it  is — that  they 
are  justified  beings,  as  having  been  enabled  to 
act  faith  on  a  Mediator.  But  whilst  justification 
insures  them  salvation,  it  puts  them  not  into  its 
present  possession.  It  is  thus  again  that  St.  Paul 
distinguishes  between  justification  and  salva- 
tion, saying  of  Christ,  "  being  now  justified  by 
his  blood,  we  shall  be  saved  from  wrath  through 
him."  So  that  the  knowing  ourselves  justified  is 
the  highest  thing  attainable  on  earth ;  salvation 
itself,  though  certain  to  be  reached,  remaining 
an  object  for  which  we  must  hope,  and  for  which 
we  must  wait. 


226  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

f 

107.    Election. 

When  God  decrees  an  end,  he  decrees  also  die 
means.  If  then  he  have  elected  me  to  obtain  sal- 
vation in  the  next  life,  he  has  elected  me  to  the 
practice  of  holiness  in  this  life.  Would  I  ascer- 
tain my  election  to  the  blessedness  of  eternity  \ 
It  must  be  by  practically  demonstrating  my  elec- 
tion to  newness  of  life.  It  is  not  by  the  rapture 
of  feeling,  and  by  the  luxuriance  of  thought,  and 
by  the  warmth  of  those  desires  which  descrip- 
tions of  heaven  may  stir  up  within  me,  that  I  can 
prove  myself  predestined  to  a  glorious  inherit- 
ance. If  I  would  find  out  what  is  hidden,  I  must 
follow  what  is  revealed.  The  way  to  heaven  is 
disclosed.  Am  I  walking  in  that  way  1  It  would 
be  poor  proof  that  I  were  on  my  voyage  to  India, 
that,  with  glowing  eloquence,  and  thrilling  poe- 
try, I  could  discourse  on  the  palm-groves  and 
the  spicy  isles  of  the  East.  Am  I  on  the  waters  1 
Is  the  sail  hoisted  to  the  wind  ;  and  does  the  land 
of  my  birth  look  blue  and  faint  in  the  distance  1 
The  doctrine  of  election  may  have  done  harm 
to  many — but  only  because  they  have  fancied 
themselves  elected  to  the  end,  and  have  forgot- 
ten that  those  whom  Scripture  calls  elected,  are 
also  elected  to  the  means.  The  Bible  never 
speaks  of  men  as  elected  only  to  be  saved  from 
the  shipwreck ;    but  as    elected   to    tighten  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS,  227 

ropes,  and  hoist  the  sails,  and  stand  to  the  rud- 
der. Let  a  man  search  faithfully  :  let  him  see- 
that  when  Scripture  describes  christians  as  elect- 
ed, it  is  as  elected  to  faith,  as  elected  to  sancti- 
fication,  as  elected  to  obedience ;  and  the  doc- 
trine of  election  will  be  nothing  but  a  stimulus 
to  effort.  It  cannot  act  as  a  soporific.  It  cannot 
lull  me  into  security.  It  cannot  engender  licen- 
tiousness. It  will  throw  ardor  into  the  spirit,  and 
fire  into  the  eye,  and  vigor  into  the  limb.  I  shal! 
cut  away  the  boat,  and  let  drive  all  human  de- 
vices, and  gird  myself,  amid  the  fierceness  of  the 
tempest,  to  steer  the  shattered  vessel  into  port. 

108.  Election  and  Free  Agency. 

Having  assured  ourselves  of  the  joint  exist- 
ence of  election  and  free  agency,  we  see,  at 
once,  that  man's  business  is  to  set  about  the 
work  of  his  salvation,  with  all  the  ardor,  and  all 
the  painstaking,  of  one  convinced  that  he  cannot 
perish,  except  through  his  own  fault.  We  tell 
him  of  a  command  of  God,  summoning  him  to 
put  forth  all  his  strength,  and  all  his  seamanship, 
ere  the  breakers  dash  against  him,  and  the  rocks 
rise  around  him.  We  thus  deal  with  man  as  a  re- 
sponsible being.  You  are  waiting  for  a  miracle  ; 
have  you  tried  the  means  1  You  are  trusting  to 
a  hidden  purpose  ;  have  you  submitted  yourselves 
to  a  revealed  command  I    Sitting  still  is  no  proof 


228  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

of  election.  Grappling  with  evil  is  a  proof;  and 
wrenching  one's-self  from  hurtful  associations  is 
a  proof;  and  studying  God's  word  is  a  proof; 
and  praying  for  assistance  is  a  proof.  He  who 
resolves  to  do  nothing  until  he  is  called — oh,  the 
likelihood  is  heyond  calculation,  that  he  will 
have  no  call  till  the  sheeted  dead  are  starting  at 
the  trumpet-call.  And  the  vessel — freighted  as 
she  was  with  noble  capacities,  with  intelligence, 
and  reason,  and  forethought,  and  the  deep  throb- 
bings  of  immortality — what  account  shall  be 
given  of  her  making  no  way  towards  the  shores 
of  the  saints'  home,  but  remaining  to  be  broken 
up  piecemeal  by  the  sweepings  of  the  judgment  % 
Simply,  that  God  told  man  of  a  compass,  and  of 
a  chart,  and  of  a  wind,  and  of  a  pilot ;  but  man 
determined  to  remain  anchored  until  God  should 
come  and  tear  the  ship  from  her  moorings.  God 
has  appointed  means.  If  we  will  use  them  dili- 
gently and  prayerfully,  we  may  look  for  a  bless- 
ing. But  if  we  despise  and  neglect  them,  we 
must  not  look  for  a  miracle. 

And  if  a  man  be  resolved  to  give  harborage  to 
the  idea  that  means  may  be  dispensed  with,  and 
that  then  miracles  will  be  wrought,  we  open  be- 
fore him  a  view  of  Paul,  the  tent-maker,  and  his 
associates,  and  bid  him  behold  the  artificers  at 
their  labor.  We  tell  him,  that  around  one  of 
these  workmen  the  priests  of  Jupiter  had  throng- 


oo9 

ed,  bearing  garlands,  and  bringing  sacrifices,  be- 
cause of  a  displayed  mastery  over  inveterate 
disease.  We  tell  him,  that,  if  there  arose  an  oc- 
casion demanding  the  exhibition  of  prodigy,  in 
support  of  Christ's  Gospel,  this  toiling  artisan 
could  throw  aside  the  implements  of  trade,  and, 
rushing  into  the  crowded  arena,  confound  an  army 
of  opponents  by  suspending  the  known  laws  of 
nature.  And,  nevertheless,  this  mightily-gifted 
individual  must  literally  starve,  or  drudge  for  a 
meal  like  the  meanest  mechanic.  And  why  so  ] 
why,  but  because  it  is  a  standing  appointment  of 
God,  that  miracles  shall  not  supersede  means  1 
If  there  were  no  means,  Paul  should  have  his 
bread  by  miracle.  But  whilst  there  is  the  can- 
vass, and  the  cord,  and  the  sight  in  the  eye,  and 
the  strength  in  the  limb,  he  may  carry  on  the 
trade  of  a  tent-maker.  He  has  the  tools  of  his 
craft :  let  him  use  them  industriously,  and  not  sit 
inactive,  hoping  to  be  supported  miraculously. 
And,  arguing  from  this  as  a  thorough  specimen 
of  God's  ordinary  dealings,  we  tell  the  listless 
expectant  of  an  effectual  call,  that  he  waits  as  an 
idler  whilst  God  requires  him  to  work  as  a  la- 
borer. Where  are  the  tools  !  Why  left  on  tho 
ground  when  they  should  be  in  the  hand  1  Where 
are  the  means  ]  Why  passed  over,  when  they 
ought  to  be  employed  1  Why  neglected,  when 
they  should  be  honored  1  Why  treated  as  worth- 
20 


230  |         BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

less,  when  God  declares  them  efficacious  1  It  is 
true  that  conversion  in  one  sense  is  a  miracle. 
But  God's  common  method  of  working  this  mi- 
racle is  through  the  machinery  of  means.  The 
only  way  to  ascertain  election  is  to  be  laborious 
in  striving.  I  read  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans i  and  I  find  the  apostle  saying,  M  so  then  it 
is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  run- 
neth, but  of  God  that  showeth  mercy  1  What 
then  1  Must  I,  on  this  account,  run  not,  but  sit 
still,  expecting  the  approaches  of  mercy  \  Away 
with  the  thought.  Means  are  God's  high  road  to 
miracles.  I  turn  from  the  apostle  writing  to  the 
Romans  to  the  apostle  toiling  at  Corinth.  And 
when  I  look  on  the  labors  of  the  tent-maker,  and 
infer  from  them  that  miracles  must  not  be  ex- 
pected where  means  have  been  instituted,  and 
that,  consequently,  whensoever  God  has  appointed 
means,  miracle  is  to  be  looked  for  only  in  their 
use  ;  oh,  in  place  of  loitering  because  I  have 
read  of  election,  I  would  gird  up  the  loins  as 
having  gazed  on  the  tent-making ;  and  in  place 
of  running  not,  because  it  is  "  of  God  that  show- 
eth mercy,"  run  might  and  main,  because  it  is  to 
those  who  are  running  that  he  shows  it. 

109.  Abuse  of  the  doctrine  of  election. 

A  man  may  perish,  ostensibly  through  abuse 
of  the  doctrine  of  election.    He  may  say,  I  am 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  231 

elect,  and,  therefore,  shall  be  saved,  though  I 
continue  in  sin.  Thus  he  wrests  election,  and 
that  too  to  his  own  certain  destruction.  But 
would  he  not  have  perished  had  he  found  no 
such  doctrine  to  wrest  %  Aye,  that  he  would  ,• 
as  fatally,  and  as  finally.  It  is  the  love  of  sin,  the 
determination  to  live  in  sin,  which  destroys  him. 
And  though,  whilst  giving  the  reins  to  his  lusts, 
he  attempts  to  derive  from  election  a  quietus 
and  excuse,  can  you  think  that  he  would  be  at  a 
loss  to  find  them  elsewhere,  if  there  were  no 
doctrine  of  election  from  which,  when  abused, 
they  may  be  wrenched  and  extorted  \  It  is  possi- 
ble that  a  man  may  slay  himself  with  "  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit ;"  but  only  because  he  is  so  bent 
upon  suicide,  that,  had  he  not  found  so  costly  a 
weapon,  he  would  have  fallen  on  a  ruder  and 
less  polished.  Satan  has  every  kind  of  instru- 
ment in  his  armory,  and  leaves  no  one  at  a  loss 
for  a  method  of  self-destruction.  Scriptural  diffi- 
culties destroy  none  who  would  not  have  been 
destroyed  had  no  difficulties  existed.  And,  there- 
fore, difficulties  might  be  permitted  for  certain 
ends  which  they,  undoubtedly,  subserve,  and  yet 
not  a  solitary  individual  be  injured  by  an  allow- 
ance which  is  to  benefit  the  great  body  of  the 
church.  We  wish  this  conclusion  borne  care- 
fully in  mind,  because  the  first  impression  is, 
that  some  are  destroyed  by  the  !f  things  hard  to 


232  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

be  understood,"  and  that  they  would  not  have 
been  destroyed  without  these  things  to  wrest. 
This  first  impression  is  a  wrong  one  ;  the  hard 
things  giving  the  occasion,  but  never  being  the 
cause  of  destruction.  The  unstable  wrest  what 
is  difficult.  But,  rather  than  be  without  some- 
thing to  pervert,  if  there  were  not  the  difficult, 
they  would  wrest  the  simple. 

If  there  were  nothing  in  Scripture  which  over- 
powered our  reason,  who  sees  not  that  intellec- 
tual pride  would  be  fostered  by  its  study  1  The 
grand  moral  discipline  which  the  Bible  now  ex- 
erts, and  which  renders  its  perusal  the  best  ex- 
ercise to  which  men  can  be  subjected,  lies 
simply  in  its  perpetual  requisition  that  Reason 
submit  herself  to  Revelation.  You  can  make  no 
way  with  the  disclosures  of  Holy  Writ,  until 
prepared  to  receive,  on  the  authority  of  God,  a 
vast  deal  which,  of  yourself,  you  cannot  prove, 
and  still  more,  which  you  cannot  explain.  And 
it  is  a  fine  schooling  for  the  student,  when,  at 
every  step  in  his  research,  he  finds  himself 
thrown  on  his  faith,  required  to  admit  truth  be- 
cause the  Almighty  hath  spoken  it,  and  not  be- 
cause he  himself  can  demonstrate.  It  is  just 
the  most  rigorous  and  wholesome  tuition  under 
which  the  human  mind  can  be  brought,  when  it 
is  continually  called  off  from  its  favorite  pro- 
cesses of  argument  and  commentary,  and  sum- 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  233 

moned  into  the  position  of  a  meek  recipient  of 
intelligence  to  be  taken  without  questioning — 
honored  with  belief  when  it  cannot  be  cleared 
by  exposition.  And  of  all  this  schooling  and 
tuition  you  would  instantly  deprive  us,  if  you 
took  away  from  the  Bible  "  things  hard  to  be 
understood." 

1 10.  Case  of  Pharaoh  applied  to  the  Impenitent. 

We  know  that  whilst  God  was  acting  on  the 
Egyptians  by  the  awful  apparatus  of  plague  and 
prodigy,  he  is  often  said  to  have  hardened  Pha- 
raoh's heart,  so  that  the  monarch  refused  to  let 
Israel  go.  And  it  is  a  great  question  to  decide, 
whether  God  actually  interfered  to  strengthen 
and  confirm  the  obstinacy  of  Pharaoh,  or  only 
left  the  king  to  the  workings  of  his  own  heart, 
as  knowing  that  one  degree  of  unbelief  would 
generate  another  and  a  more  obstinate.  It  seems 
to  us  at  variance  with  all  that  is  revealed  of  the 
Creator,  to  suppose  him  urging  on  the  wicked  in 
his  wickedness,  or  bringing  any  engine  to  bear 
on  the  ungodly  which  shall  make  them  more  des- 
perate in  rebellion.  God  willeth  not  the  death  of 
any  sinner.  And  though,  after  long  striving  with 
an  individual,  after  plying  him  with  the  various 
excitements  which  are  best  calculated  to  stir  a 
rational,  and  agitate  an  immortal  being,  he  may 
withdraw  all  the  aids  of  the  Spirit,  and  so  give 
20* 


234  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

him  over  to  that  worst  of  all  tyrants,  himself; 
yet  this,  we  contend,  must  he  the  extreme  thing 
ever  done  by  the  Almighty  to  man,  the  leaving 
him,  but  not  the  constraining  him  to  do  evil. 
And  when,  therefore,  it  is  said  that  God  harden- 
ed Pharaoh's  heart,  and  when  the  expression  is 
repeated,  so  as  to  mark  a  continued  and  on-goinij 
hardening,  we  have  no  other  idea  of  the  mean- 
ing than  that  God,  moved  by  the  obstinacy  of 
Pharaoh,  withdrew  from  him,  gradually,  all  the 
restraints  of  his  grace ;  and  that,  as  these  re- 
straints were  more  and  more  removed,  the  heart 
of  the  king  was  more  and  more  hardened.  We 
look  upon  the  instance  as  a  precise  illustration 
of  the  truth,  that  "  whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap."  Pharaoh  sowed  obsti- 
nacy, and  Pharaoh  reaped  obstinacy.  The  seed 
was  put  into  the  soil,  and  there  was  no  need,  any 
more  than  with  the  grain  of  corn,  that  God 
should  interfere  with  any  new  power.  Nothing 
more  was  required  than  that  the  seed'  should  bo 
left  to  vegetate,  to  act  out  its  own  nature.  And 
though  God,  had  he  pleased,  might  have  coun- 
teracted this  nature,  yet,  when  he  resolved  to 
give  up  Pharaoh  to  his  unbelief,  he  had  nothing 
to  do  but  to  let  alone  this  nature.  The  seed  of 
infidelity,  which  Pharaoh  had  sown  when  he  re- 
jected the  first  miracles,  was  left  to  itself  and  to 
its  own  vegetation.    It  sent  up,  accordingly,  a 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  235 

harvest  of  its  own  kind,  a  harvest  of  infidelity, 
and  Pharaoh  was  not  to  be  persuaded  by  any  of 
the  subsequent  miracles.  So  that,  when  the 
monarch  went  on  from  one  degree  of  hardness 
to  another,  till,  at  length,  advancing  through  the 
cold  ranks  of  the  prostrated  first-born,  he  pur- 
sued, across  a  blackened  and  devastated  terri- 
tory, the  people  for  whose  emancipation  there 
had  been  the  visible  making  bare  of  the  arm  of 
Omnipotence,  he  was  not  an  instance — perish, 
the  thought — or  a  man  compelled  by  his  Maker 
to  offend  and  be  lost ;  but  simply  a  witness  to 
the  truth  of  the  principle,  that  M  whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 

Now  that  which  took  place  in  the  case  of  this 
Egyptian,  is,  we  argue,  precisely  what  occurs  in 
regard  generally  to  the  impenitent.  God  destroys 
no  man.  Every  man  who  is  destroyed  must  de- 
stroy himself.  When  a  man  stifles  an  admonition 
of  conscience,  he  may  fairly  be  said  to  sow  the 
stinings  of  conscience.  And  when  conscience  ad- 
monishes him  the  next  time,  it  will  be  more  fee- 
bly and  faintly.  There  will  be  a  less  felt  difficul- 
ty in  overpowering  the  admonition.  And  the  fee- 
bleness of  remonstrance  and  the  facility  of  re- 
sistance will  increase  on  every  repetition ;  not  be- 
cause God  interferes  to  make  the  man  callous, 
but  because  the  thing  sown  was  stifling  of  con- 
science, and  therefore  the  thing  reaped  is  stifling 


236  JBIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

of  conscience.  The  Holy  Spirit  strives  with  every 
man.  Conscience  is  but  the  voice  of  Deity  heard 
above  the  din  of  human  passions.  But  let  con- 
science be  resisted,  and  the  Spirit  is  grieved. 
Then,  as  with  Pharaoh,  there  is  an  abstraction  of 
that  influence  by  which  evil  is  kept  under.  And 
thus  there  is  a  less  and  less  counteraction  to  the 
vegetating  power  of  the  seed,  and,  therefore,  a 
more  and  more  abundant  upspringing  of  that 
which  was  sown.  So  that,  though  there  must  be 
a  direct  and  mighty  interferenc e%f  Deity  for  the 
salvation  of  a  man,  there  is  no  such  interference 
for  his  destruction.  God  must  sow  the  seed  of  re- 
generation, and  enable  a  man  to  sow  "to  the 
Spirit."  But  man  sows  for  himself  the  seed  of  im- 
penitence, and  of  himself,  "  he  soweth  to  his 
flesh."  And  what  he  sows,  he  reaps.  If,  as  he 
grows  older,  he  grow  more  confirmed  in  his 
wickedness ;  if  warnings  come  upon  him  with  less 
and  less  energy;  if  the  solemnities  of  the  judgment 
lose  more  and  more  their  power  of  alarming  him, 
and  the  terrors  of  hell  their  power  of  affrighting 
him ;  why,  the  man  is  nothing  else  but  an  exhi- 
bition of  the  thickening  of  the  harvest  of  which 
himself  sowed  the  seed ;  and  he  puts  forth,  in  this 
his  confirmed  and  settled  impenitence,  a  demon- 
stration, legible  by  every  careful  observer,  that 
there  needs  no  apparatus  for  the  turning  a  man 
gradually  from  the  clay  to  the  adamant,  over  and 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  237 

abote  the  apparatus  of  his  own  heart,  left  to  itself, 
and  let  alone  to  harden. 

111.  Freeness  of  Grace  no  encouragement  to  Sin. 

We  are  charged  with  the  offer  of  pardon  to 
the  whole  mass  of  human  kind  :  enough  that  a 
being  is  man,  and  we  are  instructed  to  beseech 
him  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  And  a  glorious 
truth  it  is,  that  no  limitations  are  placed  on  the 
proffered  forgiveness ;  but  that,  Christ  having 
died  for  the  w%rld,  the  world,  in  all  its  depart- 
ments and  generations,  may  take  salvation  "  with 
out  money  and  without  price."  We  call  it  a  glo- 
rious truth,  because  there  is  thus  every  thing  to 
encourage  the  meanest  and  unworthiest,  if  they 
will  close  with  the  offer,  and  accept  deliverance 
in  the  one  appointed  way.  But  then  it  is  quite 
possible  that  what  the  Gospel  offers,  thus  cheering  to 
the  humble  and  contrite,  may  be  wrested  into  an 
encouragement  to  the  obdurate  and  indifferent. 
Men  may  know  that  God  has  so  loved  them  as  to 
give  his  Son  to  die  for  them ;  and  then  may  ima- 
gine that  a  love  thus  stupendously  displayed,  can 
never  permit  the  final  wretchedness  of  its  objects. 
The  scheme  of  redemption,  though  itself  the 
most  thrilling  homily  against  sin,  may  be  viewed 
by  those  who  would  fain  build  on  the  uncove- 
nanted  mercies  of  God,  as  proving  a  vast  impro- 
bability that  creatures,  so  beloved  as  ourselves, 


233  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

and  purchased  at  so  inconceivable  a  price,  will 
ever  be  consigned  to  the  ministry  of  vengeance. 
Hence,  because  they  know  the  fact  of  this  re- 
demption, the  careless  have  hope  in  God ;  but, 
if  they  considered  this  fact,  they  would  be  afraid 
of  him. 

There  is  nothing  which,  when  deeply  pon- 
dered, is  more  calculated  to  excite  fears  of  God, 
than  that  marvellous  interposition  on  our  behalf 
which  is  the  alone  basis  of  legitimate  hope.  When 
I  consider  redemption,  what  a  picture  of  God's 
hatred  of  sin  rises  before  me  !  what  an  exhibition 
of  his  resolve  to  allow  justice  to  exact  all  its 
claims  !  The  smoking  cities  of  the  plain ;  the  de- 
luged earth  with  its  overwhelmed  population  j 
the  scattered  Jews,  strewing  the  globe  like  the 
fragments  of  a  mighty  shipwreck — nothing  can 
tell  me  so  emphatically  as  Christ  dying,  "  the 
just  for  the  unjust,"  how  God  abhors  sin,  and 
how  determined  he  is  to  punish  sin. 

112.    w  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  reap." 

Now  we  are  all,  to  a  certain  extent,  familiar 
with  this  principle ;  for  it  is  forced  on  our  notice 
by  every-day  occurrences.  We  observe  that  a 
dissolute  and  reckless  youth  is  ordinarily  fol- 
lowed by  a  premature  and  miserable  old  age.  We 
see  that  honesty   and   industry  win   commonly 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  239 

comfort  and  respect  5  and  that,  on  the  contrary, 
levity  and  a  want  of  carefulness  produce  pau- 
perism and  disrepute.  And  yet  further,  unless  we 
go  over  to  the  ranks  of  infidelity,  we  cannot  ques- 
tion that  a  course  of  disobedience  to  God  is  earn- 
ing man's  eternal  destruction  5  whilst,  through 
submission  to  the  revealed  will  of  his  Maker, 
there  is  secured  admittance  into  a  glorious  heri- 
tage. We  are  thus  aware  that  there  runs  through 
the  Creator's  dealings  with  our  race  the  principle 
of  an  identity,  or  sameness,  between  the  things 
which  man  sows  and  those  which  he  reaps.  But 
we  think  it  possible  that  we  may  have  contented 
ourselves  with  too  superficial  a  view  of  this  prin- 
ciple 5  and  that,  through  not  searching  into  what 
may  be  termed  its  philosophy,  we  allow  much 
that  is  important  to  elude  observation.  The  seed 
sown  in  the  earth  goes  on,  as  it  were,  by  a  sort 
of  natural  process,  and  without  direct  interference 
from  God,  to  yield  seed  of  the  same  description 
with  itself.  And  we  wish  it  well  observed,  whe- 
ther there  be  not  in  spiritual  things  an  analogy 
the  most  perfect  to  what  thus  takes  place  in  na- 
tural. We  think  that,  upon  a  careful  examination, 
you  will  find  groundwork  of  belief  that  the  simile 
holds  good  in  every  possible  respect :  so  that 
what  a  man  sows,  if  left  to  its  own  vegetating 
powers,  will  yield,  naturally,  a  harvest  of  its  own 
kind  and  description. 


240  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

113.    The  Lord's  Supper. 

It  is  said  by  St.  Paul,  in1  reference  to  this  in- 
stitution, "As  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and 
drink  this  cup,  ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death  till 
he  come  " — an  explicit  assertion  that  there  is  in 
the  Lord's  supper  such  a  manifestation  of  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus  as  will  serve  to  set  forth 
that  event  until  his  second  appearing.  And  we 
scarcely  need  tell  you,  that,  inasmuch  as  the 
bread  and  the  wine  represent  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Saviour,  the  administration  of  this  ordi- 
nance is  so  commemorative  of  Christ's  having 
been  offered  as  a  sacrifice,  that  we  seem  to  have 
before  us  the  awful  and  mysterious  transaction, 
as  though  again  were  the  cross  reared,  and  the 
words  "It  is  finished"  pronounced  in  our  hear- 
ing. We  have  here  the  representation  by  signi- 
ficative action,  just  as,  in  the  case  of  preaching, 
by  authoritative  announcement.  For  no  man  can 
partake  of  this  ordinance  with  his  spiritual  sen- 
sibilities in  free  exercise,  and  not  seem  to  him- 
self to  be  traversing  the  garden  and  the  mount, 
consecrated  by  a  Mediator's  agony,  whilst  they 
witness  the  fearful  struggles  through  which  was 
effected  our  reconciliation  to  God. 

From  the  beginning  it  has  been  always  the 
same  solemn  rite,  which  might  have  attested  arid 
taught  Christianity,  had  every  written  record  pe- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  241 

rished  from  the  earth.  All  along  it  has  been  the 
Gospel  preached  by  action,  a  phenomenon  of 
which  you  could  give  no  account,  except  by  ad- 
mitting the  chief  facts  of  the  New  Testament 
history,  and  which  might,  in  a  great  degree,  have 
preserved  a  knowledge  of  those  facts,  had  they 
never  been  registered  by  evangelists.  It  is  like  a 
pillar  erected  in  the  waste  of  centuries,  indelibly 
inscribed  with  memorials  of  our  faith ;  or  rather, 
it  is  as  the  cross  itself,  presenting  to  all  ages  the 
immolation  of  that  victim  who  "  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  himself."  And  so  long  as  this 
ordinance  is  administered  in  our  churches,  men 
shall  never  be  able  to  plead  that  there  are  pre- 
sented to  them  none  but  weak  and  ineffective 
exhibitions  of  Christ.  If  the  crucifixion  be  not 
vivid,  as  delineated  from  the  pulpit,  it  must  be 
vivid  as  delineated  in  this  sacred  observance. 
And  it  is  nothing  that  hundreds  absent  them- 
selves from  the  great  celebration,  and  thus  never 
witness  the  representation  of  the  crucifixion. 
Their  remaining  away  can  do  nothing  towards 
lessening  its  solemnities,  and  stripping  it  of  en- 
ergy as  an  exhibition  of  Christ's  death.  Yes,  what- 
ever our  infirmities  and  deficiencies  as  preachers 
of  the  everlasting  Gospel,  we  take  high  ground 
as  intrusted  with  dispensing  the  Lord's  supper  : 
and  whilst  we  have  to  deliver  the  bread  of  which 
Christ  said,  e<  Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body,"  and 
21 


2i2  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

the  cup  of  which  he  declared,  M  this  is  my  blood 
of  the  New  Testament,"  we  may  look  an  assem- 
bly confidently  in  the  face,  and  affirm  that  there 
.are  proffered  them  such  exhibitions  of  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  Mediator,  that  "  Jesus  Christ  is  evi- 
dently set  forth,"  before  their  eyes,  M  crucified 
among  them." 

114«.    The  Resurrection   of  the  Body,  not  a  doc- 
trine of  Natural  Religion.     • 

We  view  with  great  amazement  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body.  So  long  as  a  divine  interference 
is  limited  to  the  soul,  we  may  be  said  to  be  pre- 
pared, at  least  in  a  degree,  for  whatever  can  be 
told  us  of  its  greatness  and  disinterestedness.  W e 
attach  a  dignity  to  the  soul,  which,  though  it 
could  not,  after  there  had  been  sin,  establish  any 
claim  to  the  succors  of  God,  seems  to  make  it, 
if  not  to  be  expected,  yet  not  to  be  wondered  at, 
that  it  was  not  abandoned  to  degradation  and 
ruin.  The  soul  is  so  much  more  nearly  of  the 
same  nature  with  God  than  the  body,  that  a  spi- 
ritual resurrection  appears  a  thousand-fold  more 
likely  than  a  corporeal.  And  you  are  to  observe 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
to  make  it  clear  to  us,  that,  if  the  soul  were  re- 
deemed, so  also  must  the  body.  The  ordinary 
current  of  thought  and  feeling  may  almost  be 
said  to  be  against  the  redemption  of  the  body. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  243 

The  body  is  felt  to  be  an  incumbrance  to  the 
soul,  hindering  it  in  its  noblest  occupations,  and 
contributing  nothing  to  its  most  elevated  plea- 
sures. So  far  from  the  soul  being  incapable  of 
happiness,  if  detached  from  the  body,  it  is  actual- 
ly its  union  with  the  body,  which,  to  all  appear- 
ance, detains  it  from  happiness.  Even  now  the 
soul  is  often  able  to  rise  above  the  body,  to  de- 
tach itself,  for  a  while,  from  matter,  and  to  soar 
into  regions  which  it  feels  to  be  more  its  home 
than  this  earth.  And  when  compelled  to  return 
from  so  splendid  an  excursion,  there  is  a  senti- 
ment of  regret  that  it  must  still  tabernacle  in 
flesh ;  and  it  is  conscious  of  longing  for  a  day  when 
it  may  finally  abandon  its  perishable  dwelling. 

Thus  there  is  nothing  of  a  felt  necessity  for 
the  re-union  of  the  soul  to  the  body,  to  guide  us 
in  expecting  the  corporeal  as  well  as  the  spiritual 
resurrection.  We  might  almost  affirm  that  the 
feeling  is  all  the  other  way.  And  though,  through 
some  fine  workings  of  reason,  or,  through  atten- 
tion to  lingering  traces  of  patriarchal  religion, 
men,  destitute  of  the  light  of  revelation,  have 
reached  a  persuasion  of  the  soul's  immortality, 
never  have  they  formed  even  a  conjecture  of  the 
body's  resurrection.  They  have  imaged  to  them- 
selves the  spirit,  which  they  felt  burning  and 
beating  within  them,  emancipated  from  thraldom, 
and  admitted  into  a  new  and  eternal  estate.   But 


244  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

they  have  consigned  the  body  to  the  intermi- 
nable dishonors  of  the  grave ;  and  never,  in  the 
boldest  imaginings,  whether  of  their  philosophy 
or  their  poetry,  have  jthey  thrown  life  into  the 
ashes  of  the  sepulchre.  It  is  almost  the  voice  of 
nature,  that  the  soul  survives  death  :  the  soul 
gives  its  own  testimony,  and  often  so  impressive- 
ly, that  a  man  could  as  easily  doubt  his  present 
as  his  future  existence.  But  there  is  no  such 
voice  put  forth  in  regard  of  the  body :  no  solemn 
and  mysterious  whisperings  are  heard  from  its 
resting-place,  the  echo  of  a  truth  which  seems 
syllabled  within  us,  that  bone  shall  come  again  to 
bone,  and  sinews  bind  them,  and  skin  cover  them, 
and  breath  stir  them. 

And  we  may  safely  argue,  that,  if  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  be  an  article  of  natural  theo- 
logy, but  the  resurrection  of  the  body  were  never 
even  thought  of  by  the  most  profound  of  its  dis- 
ciples, there  can  be  no  feeling  in  man  that  the 
matter,  as  well  as  the  spirit,  of  which  he  is  com- 
posed, must  reappear  in  another  state  of  being, 
in  order  either  to  the  possibility  or  the  felicity 
of  his  existence.  So  that — for  this  is  the  point  to 
which  our  remarks  tend — we  may  declare  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  that  it  is  altogether  an 
unexpected  fact,  one  which  no  exercise  of  rea- 
son could  have  led  us  to  conjecture,  and  for 
which   there  is  not   even   that   natural   longing 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  245 

which  might  be  interpreted  into  an  argument  of 
its  probability.  It  is  not,  then,  when  God  inter- 
poses on  behalf  of  the  soul,  it  is  when  he  inter- 
poses on  behalf  of  the  body,  that  the  grdat  cause 
is  given  for  amazement.  A  spark,  one  might  al- 
most call  it,  of  himself,  an  emanation  from  his 
own  immortality,  mighty  in  its  powers,  myste- 
rious in  its  wanderings,  sublime  in  its  anticipa- 
tions, we  scarcely  wonder  that  a  spiritual  thing 
like  the  soul  should  engage  the  carefulness  of  its 
Maker,  and  that,  if  it  sully  its  brightness  and  mar 
its  strength,  he  should  graciously  provide  for  its 
final  recovery.  But  the  body — matter,  which  is 
man's  link  of  association  with  the  lowest  of  the 
brutes,  and  which  natural  and  revealed  theology 
are  alike*  earnest  in  removing  to  the  farthest  pos- 
sible distance  from  the  divine  nature — the  body, 
whose  members  are  "  the  instruments  of  unrigh- 
teousness," whose  wants  make  our  feebleness, 
whose  lusts  are  our  tempters,  whose  infirmities 
our  torment — that  this  ignoble  and  decaying 
thing  should  be  cared  for  by  God,  who  is  ineffa- 
bly more  spiritual  than  spirit,  so  that  he  designs 
its  reappearance  in  his  own  immediate  presence, 
what  is  comparable  in  its  wonderfulness  to  this ? 
Prodigy  of  prodigies,  that  this  corruptible  should 
put  on  incorruption,  this  mortal  immortality. 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  might  have  listened  with 
amazement,  and  even  with  incredulity,  as  the 
21* 


246  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Lord  our  Redeemer  affirmed  the  effects  which 
would  be  wrought  on  the  soul  through  the  doc- 
trines and  deeds  of  his  mission.  But  he  had 
stranger  things  to  tell )  for  he  had  to  speak  of  the 
body  as  well  as  of  the  soul,  rising  from  its  ruins, 
and  gloriously  reconstructed.  Yes,  observing  how 
his  hearers  were  surprised,  because  he  had  spoken 
of  the  spiritually  dead  as  quickened  by  his  word, 
he  might  well  say  unto  them,  "  marvel  not  at 
this,"  and  give  as  his  reason,  "  for  the  hour  is 
coming,  in  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall 
hear  my  voice." 

Now,  throughout  this  examination  of  the  truth, 
that  the  resurrection  of  the  body  furnishes,  in  an 
extraordinary  degree,  cause  of  wonder  and  sur- 
prise, we  have  made  no  reference  to  the  display 
of  divine  power  which  this  resurrection  must  pre- 
sent. We  have  simply  enlarged  on  what  may  be 
called  the  unexpectedness  of  the  event,  proving 
this  unexpectedness  from  the  inferiority  of  mat- 
ter, its  utter  want  of  affinity  to  Deity,  and  the 
feelings  of  even  man  himself  in  regard  to  its  de- 
tracting from  his  dignity  and  happiness. 

115.  Resurrection  of  the  body — Christ  its 
Author. 

The  resurrection  is,  in  the  very  strictest  sense, 
a  consequence  on  redemption.  Had  not  Christ 
undertaken   the    suretyship  of  our   race,   there 


EIBLE    THOUGHTS.  ,   247 

would  never  have  come  a  time  when  the  dead 
shall  be  raised.  If  there  had  been  no  interposi- 
tion on  behalf  of  the  fallen,  whatever  had  become 
of  the  souls  of  men,  their  bodies  must  have  re- 
mained under  the  tyranny  of  death.  The  original 
curse  was  a  curse  of  death  on  the  whole  man. 
And  it  cannot  be  argued  that  the  curse  of  the 
body's  death  could  allow,  so  long  as  unrepealed, 
the  body's  resurrection.  So  that  we  may  lay  it 
down  as  an  undisputed  truth,  that  Christ  Jesus 
achieved  man's  resurrection.  He  was,  emphati- 
cally, the  Author  of  man's  resurrection.  Without 
Christ,  and  apart  from  that  redemption  of  our 
nature  which  he  wrought  out  by  obedience  and 
suffering,  there  would  have  been  no  resurrection. 
It  is  just  because  the  Eternal  Son  took  our  na- 
ture into  union  with  his  own,  and  endured  therein 
the  curse  provoked  by  disobedience,  that  a  time 
is  ^yet  to  arrive  when  the  buried  generations  shall 
throw  off  the  dishonors  of  corruption. 

116.  The  Believer  assured  of  his  Resurrection. 

The  believer  knows  that  there  is  a  distinct  and 
solemn  promise  of  Christ  which  has  respect  to 
the  bodies  of  his  people.  /  will  raise  him  up  at 
the  last  day,  is  the  repeated  assurance  in  regard 
to  the  man  who  believes  upon  his  name, — so  that 
the  Redeemer  is  as  deeply  pledged  to  be  the 
guardian  of  a  believer's  dust,  as  of  a  believer's 


248  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

soul.  He  ransomed  matter  as  well  as  spirit ;  and 
descending  himself  into  the  sepulchre,  scattered 
the  seeds  of  a  new  subsistence,  which,  germinat- 
ing on  the  morning  of  the  judgment,  shall  cover 
the  globe  with  the  vast  harvest  of  its  buried  po- 
pulation. And,  therefore,  the  believer  can  be  con- 
fident. Overwhelming  in  its  greatness  as  the 
achievement  is,  it  surpasses  not  the  energies  of 
the  Agent  unto  whom  it  is  ascribed.  Christ  raised 
himself — an  unspeakably  mightier  exploit  than 
the  raising  me.  Can  I  not  then  take  share  in  the 
persuasion  of  St.  Paul  1  Let  darkness  be  woven 
for  my  shroud,  and  the  grave  be  hollowed  for  my 
bed,  and  the  worm  be  given  for  my  companion — 
with  thee,  O  Christ,  I  intrust  this  body.  /  know 
whom  I  have  believed.  The  winds  may  disperse, 
the  waters  may  ingulf,  and  the  fires  may  rarify 
the  atoms  which  made  up  this  frame  ;  but  I  know 
that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  though  after  my  skin 
worms  destroy  this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I 
see  God.  Thus,  body  as  well  as  soul,  the  believer 
commits  himself  wholly  to  Christ, — and  expe- 
rience witnessing  to  Christ's  power  and  Christ's 
faithfulness,  he  can  exclaim  with  the  apostle,  I 
am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I 
have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day.  That 
day — we  need  not  tell  the  believer  what  day. 
His  thoughts  and  his  hopes  are  on  the  second  ad- 
vent of  his  Lord  5  and  though  no  day  has  been 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.'  249 

specified,  yet  speak  of  that  day,  and  the  allusion 
is  distinctly  understood ;  the  mind  springs  for- 
ward to  meet  the  descending  pomp  of  the  Judge  ; 
and  that  august  period  is  anticipated,  when,  vin- 
dicating before  the  universe  the  fidelity  of  his 
guardianship,  Christ  shall  consign  his  followers 
to  glory  and  blessedness  ;  and,  apportioning  noble 
allotments  to  both  body  and  soul,  prove  that  no- 
thing has  been  lost  of  that  unmeasured  deposit, 
which  from  Adam  downwards  to  the  last  elect, 
has  accumulated  in  his  keeping. 

117.    Resurrection  of  the  body — its  wonderful 
character. 

We  do  not  know,  that,  in  the  whole  range  of 
things  effected  by  God,  there  is  aught  so  sur- 
prising, regard  being  had  only  to  the  power  dis- 
played, as  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  If  you 
will  ponder,  for  a  few  moments,  the  facts  of  a 
resurrection,  you  will  probably  allow  that  the 
power  which  must  be  exerted  in  order  to  the 
final  reconstruction  of  every  man's  body,  is  more 
signal  than  that  displayed  in  any  spiritual  reno- 
vation, or  in  any  of  those  divine  operations  which 
we  are  able  to  trace  in  the  visible  universe.  You 
are  just  to  think  that  this  framework  of  flesh,  in 
which  my  soul  is  now  enclosed,  will  be  reduced 
at  death  to  the  dust  from  which  it  was  taken.  I 
cannot  tell  where  or  what  will  be  my  sepulchre — 


250  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

whether  I  shall  sleep  in  one  of  the  quiet  church- 
yards of  my  own  land,  or  be  exposed  on  some 
foreign  shore,  or  fall  a  prey  to  the  beasts  of  the 
desert,  or  seek  a  tomb  in  the  depths  of  the  unfa- 
thomable waters.  But  an  irreversible  sentence 
has  gone  forth — "  dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust 
thou  shalt  return" — and  assuredly,  ere  many 
years,  and  perhaps  even  ere  many  days  have 
elapsed,  must  my  l<  earthly  house  of  this  taber- 
nacle be  dissolved,"  rafter  from  rafter,  beam 
from  beam,  and  the  particles,  of  which  it  has 
been  curiously  compounded,  be  separated  from 
each  other,  and  perhaps  scattered  to  the  four 
winds  of  heaven.  And  who  will  pretend  to  trace 
the  wanderings  of  these  particles  ?  There  is 
manifestly  the  most  thorough  possibility,  that 
the  elements  of  which  my  body  is  composed, 
may  have  belonged  to  the  bone  and  flesh  of  suc- 
cessive generations  ;  and  that,  when  I  shall  have 
passed  away  and  be  forgotten,  they  will  be  again 
wrought  into  the  structure  of  animated  beings. 
And  when  you  think  that  my  body,  at  the  re- 
surrection, must  have  at  least  so  much  of  its  ori- 
ginal matter  as  shall  be  necessary  for  the  pre- 
servation of  identity,  for  the  making  me  know 
and  feel  myself  the  very  same  being  who  sinned, 
and  suffered,  and  was  disciplined  on  earth,  you 
must  allow  that  nothing  short  of  infinite  know- 
ledge and  power  could  prevail  to  the  watching, 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  251 

and  disentangling,  and  keeping  duly  separate, 
whatever  is  to  be  again  builded  into  a  habitation 
for  my  spirit,  so  that  it  may  be  brought  together 
from  the  four  ends  of  the  earth,  detached  from 
other  creatures,  or  extracted  from  other  substan- 
ces. This  would  be  indeed  a  wonderful  thing,  if 
it  were  true  of  none  but  myself,  if  it  were  only 
in  my  solitary  case  that'  a  certain  portion  of 
matter  had  thus  to  be  watched,  kept  distinct 
though  mingled,  and  appropriated  to  myself 
whilst  belonging  to  others.  But  try  to  suppose 
the  same  holding  good  of  every  human  being,  of 
Adam,  and  each  member  of  his  countless  poste- 
rity, and  see  whether  the  resurrection  will  not 
utterly  confound  and  overburden  the  mind.  To 
every  individual  in  the  interminable  throng  shall 
his  own  body  be  given,  a  body  so  literally  his 
own,  that  it  shall  be  made  up,  to  at  least  a  cer- 
tain extent,  of  the  matter  which  composed  it 
whilst  he  dwelt  on  this  earth.  And  yet  this 
matter  may  have  passed  through  innumerable 
changes.  It  may  have  circulated  through  the 
living  tribes  of  many  generations ;  or  it  may 
have  been  waving  in  the  trees  of  the  forest  ,* 
or  it  may  have  floated  on  the  wide  waters  of  the 
deep.  But  there  has  been  an  eye  upon  it  in  all 
its  appropriations,  and  in  all  its  transformations ; 
so  that,  just  as  though  it  had  been  indelibly 
stamped,  from  the  first,  with  the  name  of  the 


252  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

human  being  to  whom  it  should  finally  belongs 
it  has  been  unerringly  reserved  for  the  great  day 
of  resurrection.  Thus  myriads  upon  myriads  of 
atoms — for  you  may  count  up  till  imagination  is 
wearied,  and  then  reckon  that  you  have  but  one 
unit  of  the  still  inapproachable  sum — myriads 
upon  myriads  of  atoms,  the  dust  of  kingdoms, 
the  ashes  of  all  that  have  lived,  are  perpetually 
jostled,  and  mingled,  and  separated,  and  anima- 
ted, and  swept  away,  and  reproduced,  and,  ne- 
vertheless, not  a  solitary  particle  but  holds  itself 
ready,  at  the  sound  of  the  last  trump,  to  combine 
itself  with  a  multitude  of  others,  in  a  human 
body  in  which  they  once  met  perhaps  a  thou- 
sand years  before. 

118.    Heaven. 

Are  we  deceiving  men,  are  we  merely  sketching 
ideal  pictures,  to  whose  beauty  and  brilliancy 
there  is  nothing  correspondent  in  future  realities, 
when  we  expatiate  on  the  glories  of  heaven,  and 
task  imagination  to  build  its  palaces  and  portray 
its  inhabitants  1  Yes,  in  one  sense  we  deceive 
them  :  they  are  but  ideal  pictures  which  we  draw. 
What  human  pencil  can  delineate  scenes  in  which 
God  manifests  his  presence  1  what  human  color- 
ing emulate  the  effulgence  which  issues  from  his 
throne  1  But  we  deceive  them  only  through  ina- 
bility to  rise  sufficiently  high  j  we  exhaust  imagi- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  253 

nation,  but  not  the  thousandth  part  is  told.  They 
are  deceived,  only  if  they  think  we  tell  them  all, 
if  they  take  the  pictures  which  we  draw  as  perfect 
representations  of  the  majesty  of  the  future. 

When  we  speak  to  them  of  the  deep  and  perma- 
nent repose  of  heaven ;  when  we  enlarge  on  the 
manifestations  of  Deity ;  when  we  declare  that 
Christ,  as  -V  the  Minister  of  the  Sanctuary,"  will 
unfold  to  his  church  the  mysteries  which  have  per- 
plexed them ;  when  we  gather  together  what  is 
gorgeous,  and  precious,  and  beautiful,  in  the  visi- 
ble creation ;  and  crowd  it  into  the  imagery  where- 
with we  delineate  the  final  home  of  the  saints ; 
when  we  take  the  sun  from  the  firmament,  that  the 
Lord  God  may  shine  there  ;  and  remove  ail  tem- 
ples from  the  city,  that  the  Almighty  may  be  its 
Sanctuary;  and  hush  all  human  minstrelsy,  that 
the  immense  tide  of  song  may  roll  from  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  voices — we  speak  only  the 
words  of  truth  and  soberness,  though  we  have 
not  compassed  the  greatness,  nor  depicted  the 
loveliness,  of  the  portion  which  awaits  the  disci- 
ples of  Christ.  Oh,  as  the  shining  company  take 
the  circuit  of  the  celestial  city ;  as  they  tf  walk 
about  Zion,  and  go  round  about  her,"  telling  the 
towers  thereof,  marking  well  her  bulwarks,  and 
considering  her  palaces ;  who  can  doubt  that  they 
say  one  to  another,  "  as  we  have  heard,  so  have 
we  seen,  in  the  city  of  our  God  1"  We  heard  that 
22 


254  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

here  "  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,"  and  now 
we  behold  the  deep  rich  calm.  We  heard  that 
here  we  should  he  with  the  Lord,  and  now  we  see 
him  face  to  face.  We  heard  that  here  wTe  should 
know  even  as  we  are  known,  and  now  the  ample 
page  of  universal  truth  is  open  to  our  inspection. 
We  heard  that  here,  with  the  crown  on  the  head 
and  the  harp  in  the  hand,  we  should  execute  the 
will,  and  hymn  the  praises  of  our  God,  and  now 
we  wear  the  diadem,  and  wake  the  melody.  They 
can  take  to  themselves  the  words  which  the  dy- 
ing leader  Joshua  used  of  the  Israelites,  "not  one 
thing  hath  failed  of  all  the  good  things  which  the 
Lord  our  God  spake  concerning  us ;  all  are  come 
to  pass,  and  not  one  thing  hath  failed  thereof." 

Shall  it  he  said  of  any  amongst  ourselves,  that 
they  heard  of  heaven,  but  made  ?;o  effort  to  behold 
it  I  Is  there  one  who  can  be  mdiflerent  to  the 
announcement  of  its  glories,  one  who  can  feel 
utterly  careless  whether  he  ever  prove  for  him- 
self, that  there  has  been  no  deceit,  no  exaggera- 
tion, but  that  it  is  indeed  a  surpassingly  fair  land 
which  is  to  be  everlastingly  the  home  of  those 
who  believe  in  the  Redeemer  1  Everlastingly  the 
home — "God  will  establish  it  for  ever."  The 
walls  of  that  city  shall  never  decay ;  the  lustres 
of  that  city  shall  never  grow  dim ;  the  melodies 
of  that  city  shall  never  be  hushed.  And  is  it  of  a 
city  such  as  this  that  any  one  of  us  can  be  indiffe- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  255 

rent  whether  or  no  he  be  finally  an  inhabitant  1 
We  will  not  believe  it  1  The  old  and  the  young, 
the  rich  and  the  poor,  all  must  be  ready  to  bind 
themselves  by  a  solemn  vow,  that  they  will  "  seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteousness." 
It  is  not  the  voice  of  a  solitary  and  weak  fellow 
man  which  now  tells  yo u  of  heaven.  God  is  sum- 
moning you.  Angels  are  summoning  you.  The 
myriads  who  have  gone  before  are  summoning 
you.  We  are  surrounded  by  a  "  great  cloud  of 
witnesses."  The  battlements  of  the  sky  seem 
thronged  with  those  who  have  fought  the  good 
fight  of  faith.  They  bend  down  from  their  emi- 
nence, and  bid  us  ascend,  through  the  one  Media- 
tor, to  the  same  lofty  dwelling.  They  shall  not 
call  in  vain.  We  know  their  voices,  as  they  sweep 
by  us  solemnly  and  sweetly.  Oh,  who  will  not 
adopt  some  such  reflection  and  prayer  as  this — 1 
have  heard  of  heaven,  I  have  been  told  of  its 
splendors  and  of  its  happiness ;  grant,  gracious 
and  eternal  Father,  that  I  fail  not  at  last  to  be  as- 
sociated with  those  who  shall  rejoicingly  exclaim, 
"  as  we  have  heard,  so  have  we  seen,  in  the  city 
of  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

119.    Happiness  of  Heaven. 

It  is  certain,  that,  if  God  be  all  in  all,  there  will 
be  excited  in  us  no  wish  which  we  shall  be  requir- 
ed to  repress,  none  which  shall  not  be  gratified  so 


256  BIBLE    THOUGHTS- 

soon  as  formed.  Having  God  in  ourselvesf  ws 
shall  have  capacities  of  enjoyment  immeasurably 
larger  than  at  present  j  having  God  in  all  around 
us,  we  shall  find  every  where  material  of  enjoy- 
ment commensurate  with  our  amplified  powers. 
Let  us  put  from  us  confused  and  indeterminate 
notions  of  happiness,  and  the  simple  description, 
that  God  shall  be  ail  in  all,  sets  before  us  the  very 
perfection  of  felicity.  The  only  sound  definition 
of  happiness  is  that  every  faculty  has  its  proper 
object.  And  we  believe  of  man,  that  God  endow- 
ed him  with  various  capacities,  intending  to  be 
himself  their  supply.  Man  indeed  revolted  from 
God,  and  has  ever  since  endeavored,  though  ever 
disappointed,  to  fill  his  capacities  with  other  ob- 
jects than  God.  But  may  not  God  hereafter,  hav- 
ing rectified  the  disorders  of  humanity,  be  him- 
self the  object  of  our  every  faculty  I  I  know  not 
why  we  may  not  suppose  that  not  only  the  works 
of  God  which  now  manifest  his  qualities,  but  the 
qualities  themselves,  as  they  subsist  without  mea- 
sure in  the  ever-living  Creator,  will  become  the 
immediate  objects  of  contemplation* 

At  present,  we  make  little  or  no  approach  to- 
wards knowing  God  as  he  is,  because  God  hath 
not  yet  made  himself  all  in  all  to  his  creatures.' 
But  let  there  once  come  this  universal  diffusion 
of  Deity,  and  we  may  find  in  God  himself  the 
objects  which  answer  to  our  matured  and  spiritu- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  257 

alizecl  faculties.  We  profess  not  to  be  competent 
to  the  understanding  the  mysterious  change  which 
is  thus  indicated  as  passing  on  the  universe.. But 
we  can  perceive  it  to  be  a  change  which  shall  be 
full  of  glory,  full  of  happiness.  We  shall  be  as 
sensible  of  the  presence  of  God,  as  we  now  are 
of  the  presence  of  a  friend,  when  he  is  standing 
by  us  and  conversing  with  us.  "  And  what  will  be 
the  joy  of  heart  which  his  presence  will  inspire 
good  men  with,  when  they  shall  have  a  sensation 
that  he  is  the  sustainer  of  their  being,  that  they 
exist  in  him ;  when  they  shall  feel  his  influence 
cheering,  and  enlivening,  and  supporting  their 
frame,  in  a  manner  of  which  we  have  now  no  con- 
ception 1"  He  will  be,  in  a  literal  sense,  their 
strength  and  their  portion  for  ever. 

120.  Holiness  of  Heaven. 

How  vain  must  be  our  hope  of  entering  into 
heaven,  if  we  have  no  present  delight  in  what 
are  said  to  be  its  joys.  A  christian  finds  his 
happiness  in  holiness.  And  therefore,  when  he 
looks  forward  to  heaven,  it  is  the  holiness  of  the 
scene,  and  association,  on  which 'he  fastens  as 
"affording  the  happiness.  He  is  not  in  love  with 
an  Arcadian  paradise,  with  the  green  pastures, 
and  the  flowing  waters,  and  the  minstrelsy  of 
many  harpers.  He  is  not  dreaming  of  a  bright 
island,  where  he  shall  meet  buried  kinsfolk,  and, 


258  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

renewing1  domestic  charities,  live  human  life 
again  in  all  but  its  cares,  and  tears,  and  partings. 
M  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy" — this  is  the  pre- 
cept, attempted  conformity  to  which  is  the  busi- 
ness of  a  christian's  life,  perfect  conformity  to 
which  shall  be  the  blessedness  of  heaven.  Let 
us  therefore  take  heed  that  we  deceive  not  our- 
selves. The  apostle  speaks  of  "tasting  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come,"  as  though  heaven 
were  to  begin  on  this  side  the  grave.  We  may 
be  enamored  of  heaven,  because  we  think  that 
,r  there  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the 
weary  are  at  rest."  We  may  be  enchanted  with 
the  poetry  of  its  descriptions,  and  fascinated  by 
the  brilliancy  of  its  colorings,  as  the  Evangelist 
John  relates  his  visions,  and  sketches  the  scenery 
on  which  he  was  privileged  to  gaze.  But  all  this 
does  not  prove  us  on  the  high  road  to  heaven. 
Again  wre  say,  that,  if  it  be  heaven  towards  which 
we  journey,  it  will  be  holiness  in  which  we  de- 
light :  for  if  we  cannot  now  rejoice  in  having 
God  for  our  portion,  where  is  our  meetness  for 
a  world  in  which  God  is  to  be  all  in  all  for 
ever  and  for  ever  1 

121.    Final  Rewards  proportioned  to  the  Works 
of  the  Believer, 

Whilst  bowed  to  the  dust  under  a  sense  of 
utter  unworthiness,  the  believer  is  to  contend 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  259 

for  the  richest  and  most  radiant  of  prizes.  Wo 
tell  him  that  it  is  good  that  he  hope  and  wait. 
It  is  telling  him  there  is  yet  time,  though  rapidly 
diminishing,  for  securing  high  rank  in  the  king- 
dom. It  is  telling  the  wrestler,  the  glass  is  run- 
ning out,  and  there  is  a  garland  frot  won.  It  is 
telling  the  warrior,  the  night  shades  are  gather- 
ing, and  the  victory  is  not  yet  complete.  It  is 
telling  the  traveler,  the  sun  is  declining,  and 
there  are  higher  peaks  to  be  scaled.  Is  it  not 
good  that  I  hope  and  wait,  when  each  moment 
may  add  a  jewel  to  the  crown,  a  plume  to  the 
wing,  a  city  to  the  sceptre  1  Is  it  not  good, 
when  each  second  of  effort  may  lift  me  a  step 
higher  in  the  scale  of  triumph  and  majesty  1  Oh, 
you  look  on  an  individual  whose  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus  has  been  demonstrated  by  most  scriptural 
evidence,  but  unto  whom  life  is  one  long  series 
of  trials,  and  disasters,  and  pains  ;  and  you  are 
disposed  to  ask,  seeing  there  can  rest  no  doubt 
on  the  man's  title  to  salvation,  whether  it  would 
not  be  good  for  him  to  be  freed  at  once  from  the 
burden  of  the  flesh,  and  thus  spared,  it  may  be, 
yet  many  years  of  anxiety  and  struggle.  You 
think  that  he  may  well  take  as  his  own  the  words 
of  the  Psalmist :  M  Oh  that  I  had  wings  like  a 
dove,  then  would  I  flee  away  and  be  at  rest." 
But  we  meet  you  with  the  assertion  of  an  insti- 
tuted connection  between  our  two  states  of  being. 


260  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

We  tell  you  that  the  believer,  as  he  breasts  the 
storm,  and  plunges  into  the  war,  and  grapples 
with  affliction,  is  simply  in  the  condition  of  one 
who  contends  for  a  prize  ;  and  that  if  he  were 
taken  off  from  the  scene  of  combat,  just  at  the 
instant  of  challenging  the  adversary;  and  thus 
saved,  on  your  short-sighted  calculation,  a  su- 
perfluous outlay  of  toil  and  resistance,  he  would 
miss  noble  things,  and  things  of  loveliness,  in  his 
everlasting  portion,  and  be  brought  down  from 
some  starry  eminence  in  the  sovereignties  of 
eternity,  which,  had  he  fought  through  a  long 
life-time  "  the  good  fight  of  faith,"  might  have 
been  awarded  him  in  the  morning  of  the  first 
resurrection. 

122.  Future  Punishment. 

There  is  no  resting-place  for  the  spirit  in  the 
flattering  delusion,  that,  in  the  moment  of  terri- 
ble extremity,  when  the  misdoings  of  a  long  life 
shall  have  given  in  their  testimony,  mercy  will 
interpose  between  justice  and  the  criminal,  and 
ward  off  the  blow,  and  welcome  to  happiness. 
Every  attribute  of  Deity,  benevolence  itself  as 
well  as  justice,  and  holiness,  and  truth,  rises 
against  the  delusion,  and  warns  me  that  to 
cherish  it  is  to  go  headlong  to  destruction.  The 
theory  that  God  is  too  loving  to  take  vengeance, 
will  not  bear  being  considered.    The  notion  that 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS,  261 

the  judge  will  prove  less  rigid  than  the  lawgiver, 
will  not  bear  being  considered.  The  opinion  that 
the  purposes  of  a  moral  government  may  have 
been  answered  by  the  threatening,  so  as  not  to 
need  the  infliction,  will  not  bear  being  consi- 
dered. And  therefore,  if  I  have  accustomed  my- 
self to  such  a  representation  of  Deity  as  makes 
benevolence,  falsely  so  called,  the  grave  of  every 
other  attribute ;  and  if,  allured  by  such  repre- 
sentation, I  have  quieted  anxiety,  and  kept  down 
the  pleadings  of  conscience ;  consideration  will 
scatter  the  delusion,  and  gird  me  round  with 
terrors.  Whilst  I  look  only  on  the  surface  of 
things  I  may  be  confident,  but  when  I  consider 
I  am  afraid. 

Oh !  it  is  not,  as  some  would  persuade  you, 
the  dream  of  gloomy  and  miscalculating  men, 
that  a  punishment,  the  very  mention  of  which 
curdles  the  blood  and  makes  the  limbs  tremble, 
awaits,  through  the  long  hereafter,  those  who  set 
at  naught  the  atonement  effected  by  Christ.  It 
is  not  the  picture  of  a  diseased  imagination, 
nursed  in  error  and  trammeled  by  enthusiasm — 
that  of  God,  who  now  plies  us  with  the  overtures 
of  forgiveness,  coming  forth  with  all  the  artillery 
of  wrath,  and  dealing  out  vengeance  on  those 
who  have  "  done  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace.'' 
We  bring  the  dream  to  the  rigid  investigations 
of  wakefulness ;  we  expose  the  picture  to  the 


262  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

microscopes  of  the  closest  meditation ;  vand  when 
men  would  taunt  us  with  our  belief  in  unuttera- 
ble torments,  portioned  out  by  a  Creator  who 
loves  (with  a  love  overpassing  language)  the 
very  meanest  of  his  creatures  ;  and  when  they 
would  smile  at  our  credulity  in  supposing  that 
God  can  act  in  a  manner  so  repugnant  to  his 
confessed  nature  ;  we  retort  on  them  at  once  the 
charge  of  adopting  an  unsupported  theory.  We 
tell  them,  that,  if  with  them  we  could  escape 
from  thought  and  smother  reflection,  then  with 
them  we  might  give  harborage  to  the  soothing 
persuasion  that  there  is  no  cause  for  dread,  and 
that  God  is  of  too  yearning  a  compassion  to 
resign  aught  of  humankind  to  be  broken  on  the 
wheel  or  scathed  by  the  fire.  But  it  is  in  pro- 
portion as  the  mind  fastens  itself  upon  God  that 
alarm  is  excited.  Thought,  in  place  of  dissipating, 
generates  terror.  And  thus,  paralyze  my  reason, 
debar  me  from  every  exercise  of  intellect,  reduce 
me  to  the  idiot,  and  I  shall  be  careless  and  con- 
fident :  but  leave  me  the  equipment  and  use 
of  mental  faculties,  and  "  when  I  consider,  I  am 
afraid  of  him." 

123.    Fearful  doom  of  the  Wicked, 

It  were  comparatively  little  to  say  of  an  indi- 
vidual who  sells  himself  to  work  evil,  and  carries 
it  with  a  high  hand  and  a  brazen  front  against  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  263 

Lord  of  the  whole  earth,  that  he  shuts  himself 
up  to  a  certain  and  definite  destruction.  The 
thrilling  truth  is,  that,  in  working  iniquity,  he 
sows  for  himself  anguish.  He  gives  not  way  to 
a  new  desire,  he  allows  not  a  fresh  victory  to  lust, 
without  multiplying  the  amount  of  final  torment. 
By  every  excursion  of  passion,  and  by  every  in- 
dulgence of  an  unhallowed  craving,  and  by  all 
the  misdoings  of  a  hardened  or  dissolute  life,  he 
may  be  literally  said  to  pour  into  the  granary  of 
his  future  destinies  the  goads  and  stings  which 
shall  madden  his  spirit.  He  lays  up  more  food 
for  self-reproach.  He  widens  the  field  over  which 
thought  will  pass  in  bitterness,  and  mow  down 
remorse.  He  teaches  the  worm  to  be  ingenious 
in  excruciating,  by  tasking  his  wit  that  he  may  be 
ingenious  in  sinning — for  some  men,  as  the  pro- 
phet saith— and  it  is  a  wonderful  expression — 
"are  wise  to  do  evil."  And  thus,  his  iniquities 
opening,  as  it  were,  fresh  inlets  for  the  approaches 
of  vengeance,  with  the  growth  of  wickedness 
will  be  the  growth  of  punishment :  and  at  last  it 
will  appear  that  his  resistance  to  convictions,  his 
neglect  of  opportunities,  and  his  determined  en- 
slavement to  evil,  have  literally  worked  for  him 
"  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  "  of 
despair. 


264  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

124?.    Piety  a  strengthener  and   enlarger  of 
the  Mind. 

It  is,  we  believe,  commonly  observed,  by  those 
who  set  themselves  to  examine  the  effects  of 
religion  upon  different  characters,  that  a  general 
strengthening  of  the  mind  is  amongst  the  usual 
accompaniments  of  piety.  The  instances,  indeed, 
are  of  no  rare  occurrence  in  which  a  mental 
weakness,  bordering  almost  on  imbecility,  has 
been  succeeded  by  no  inconsiderable  soundness 
and  strength  of  understanding.  The  case  has 
come  within  our  own  knowledge  of  an  individual, 
who,  before  conversion,  was  accounted,  to  say  the 
least,  of  very  limited  capacities  ;  but  who,  after 
conversion,  displayed  such  power  of  comprehend- 
ing difficult  truths,  and  such  facility  in  stating 
them  to  others,  that  men  of  well-informed  minds 
sought  intercourse  as  a  privilege.  Something  of 
the  same  kind  has  frequently  been  observed  in  re- 
gard to  children.  The  grace  of  God  has  fallen, 
like  the  warm  sun  of  the  East,  on  their  mental 
faculties  ;  and,  ripening  them  into  the  richness  of 
the  summer,  whilst  the  body  had  as  yet  not  pass- 
ed through  its  spring-time,  has  caused  that  gray- 
hairs  might  be  instructed  by  the  tender  disciple 
and  brought  a  neighborhood  round  a  death-bed 
to  learn  wisdom  from  the  lips  of  a  youth.  And, 
without  confining  ourselves  to  instances  which 
may  be  reckoned  peculiar  and  extraordinary,  we 


E1BLE    THOUGHTS  265 

would  assert  that,  in  all  cases,  a  marked  change 
passes  over  the  human  mind  when  the  heart  is  re- 
newed by  the  influence  of  God's  Spirit.  We  are  not 
guilty  of  the  absurdity  of  maintaining  that  there 
are   supernaturally  communicated  any   of  those 
stores  of  information  which  are  ordinarily  gained 
by  a  patient  and  pains-taking  application.  A  man 
will  not  become  more  of  an  astronomer  than  he 
was  before,  nor  more  of  a  chemist,  nor  more  of 
a  linguist.     He  will  have  no  greater  stock  of 
knowledge  than  he  before  possessed  of  subjects 
which  most  occupy  the  learned  of  his  fellows. 
And  if  he  would  inform  himself  in  such  subjects, 
the  man  of  religion  must  give  himself  to  the  same 
labor  as  the  man  of  no  religion,  and  sit  down,  with 
the  same  industry,  to  the  treatise  and  the  gram- 
mar.   The  peasant,  who  becomes  not  the  philoso- 
pher simply  because  his  mental  powers  have  been 
undisciplined,  will  not  leave  the  plough  for  the 
orrery,  because  his  understanding  is  expanded  by 
religion.     Education  might  give,  whilst  religion 
will  not  give,  the  powers  the  philosophical  bent. 
But  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  strength- 
ening the  mind,  and  storing  it  with  information. 
We  may  plead  for  the  former  effect  without  at 
all  supposing  the  latter:  though  we  shall  see  that 
information  of  the  loftiest  description  is  convey- 
ed through  the  opening  of  the  Bible,  and  that, 
crwsprjuently,  if  the  impartment  of  knowledge 
23 


266  BIBLE    THOtTGHTS. 

be  an  improving  thing  to  the  faculties,  an  im- 
provement the  most  marked  must  result  from 
conversion.  But  we  confine  ourselves,  at  present, 
to  the  statement  of  a  fact.  We  assert  that,  in 
all  cases,  a  man  is  intellectually,  as  well  as  spiri- 
tually advantaged  through  becoming  a  man  of 
piety.  He  will  have  a  clearer  and  less-biassed 
judgment.  His  views  will  be  wider,  his  estimates 
more  correct.  His  understanding  having  been 
exercised  on  truths  the  most  stupendous,  will  be 
more  competent  for  the  examination  of  what  is 
difficult  or  obscure.  His  reason  having  learned 
that  much  lies  beyond  her  province,  as  well  as 
much  within,  will  give  herself  to  inquiries  with 
greater  humility  and  greater  caution,  and  there- 
fore, almost  to  a  moral  certainty,  with  greater 
success.  And  though  we  may  thus  seem  rather 
to  account  for  the  fact  than  to  prove  it,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  this  fact,  being  an  effect,  can 
only  be  established,  either  by  pointing  out  causes, 
or  by  appealing  to  experience.  The  appeal  to 
experience  is,  perhaps,  the  correcter  mode  of  the 
two.  And  we,  therefore,  content  ourselves  with 
saying,  that  those  who  have  watched  character 
most  narrowly  will  bear  out  the  statement,  that 
the  opening  is  followed,  ordinarily,  by  a  surpris- 
ing opening  of  man's  faculties.  If  you  take  the 
rude  and  illiterate  laborer,  you  will  find  that  re- 
generation proves  to  him  a  sort  of  intellectual  as 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  267 

well  as  a  moral  renovation.  There  shall  general- 
ly be  no  ploughman  in  the  village  who  is  so  sound, 
and  shrewd,  and  clear-headed  a  man,  as  the  one 
who  is  most  attentive  to  the  salvation  of  his  soul. 
And  if  an  individual  have  heretofore  been  obtuse 
and  unintelligent,  let  him  be  converted,  and  there 
shall  hereafter  be  commonly  a  quickness  and  ani- 
mation ;  so  that  religion,  whose  prime  business  it 
is  to  shed  light  upon  the  heart,  shall  appear,  at 
the  same  time,  to  have  thrown  fire  into  the  eye. 
We  do  not,  indeed,  assert  that  genius  and  talent 
are  imparted  at  the  new  birth.  But  that  it  is 
amongst  the  characteristics  of  godliness,  that  it 
elevates  man  in  the  scale  of  intellectual  being ; 
that  it  makes  him  a  more  thinking,  and  a  more  in- 
quiring, and  a  more  discriminating  creature  ;  that 
it  both  rectifies  and  strengthens  the  mental  vision : 
we  are  guilty  of  no  exaggeration,  if  we  contend 
for  this  as  universally  true  ;  and  this,  if  not  more 
than  this,  is  asserted  in  the  statement,  that  "  the 
entrance  of  God's  words  giveth  light,  it  giveth 
understanding  to  the  simple." 

125.  Jl  national  Wickedness — its  effects  on  the 
Righteous, 

"  It  is  time  for  thee,  Lord,  to  work,  for  they 
have  made  void  thy  law,  therefore  I  love  thy 
commandments  above  gold,  yea,  above  fine 
gold."    As  if  David  had  said,  Men  have  now  ex- 


268  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ceeded  the  bounds  prescribed  to  long-suffering  ; 
they  have  outrun  the  limits  of  grace ;  and  now 
God  must  interfere,  vindicate  his  own  honor, 
and  repress  the  swellings  of  unrighteousness. 
Yet  would  he  still  love  God's  law.  It  is  possible 
to  go  so  far  in  disobedience  that  it  will  be  neces- 
sary for  God  to  interpose  in  vengeance,  and  visi- 
bly withstand  men's  impiety.  But  what  effect 
will  be  produced  on  a  truly  righteous  man  by  this 
extraordinary  prevalence  of  iniquity  1  Will  lie  be 
carried  away  by  the  current  of  evil  1  Will  he  be 
tempted,  by  the  universal  scorn  which  he  sees 
thrown  on  God's  law,  to  think  slightingly  of  it 
himself,  and  give  it  less  of  his  reverence  and  at- 
tachment 1  On  the  contrary,  this  law  becomes 
more  precious  in  David's  sight,  in  proportion  as 
he  felt  that  it  was  so  despised  and  set  aside,  that 
the  time  for  God  to  work  had  arrived.  You  ob- 
serve that  the  verses  are  connected  by  the  word 
"  therefore."  "  They  have  made  void  thy  law." 
What  then  1  is  that  law  less  esteemed  and  less 
prized  by  myself  1  Quite  the  reverse;  "They 
have  made  void  thy  law ;  therefore  I  love  thy 
commandments  above  gold,  yea*,  above  fine  gold." 
There  is  much  that  deserves  our  closest  attention 
in  this  connection.  It  is  a  high  point  of  holiness 
which  that  man  has  reached,  whose  love  of  God's 
commandments  grows  with  the  contempt  which 
all   around   him  put    on   these   commandments. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  269 

There  is  greater  reason  than  ever  for  our  prizing 
God's  law,  if  the  times  be  those  in  which  that 
law  is  made  void.  So  that  here  are  two  great 
principles.  The  first  is,  that  there  is  a  point  in 
human  iniquity  at  which  it  is  necessary  that  God 
should  interfere  $  the  second,  that,  when  this  point 
is  reached,  the  righteous  are  more  than  ever 
bound  to  prize  and  love  the  law  of  the  Lord. 

126.  The  Christian's  feelings  at  the  ahoundings 
of  Wickedness. 

It  is  a  spectacle  which  should  stir  all  the  anxi- 
eties and  sympathies  of  a  believer — that  of  a 
world  which  has  been  ransomed  by  blood-shed- 
ding, but  which,  nevertheless,  is  overspread  with 
impiety  and  infidelity.  The  christian  is  the  man 
of  loyalty  and  uprightness,  forced  to  dwell  in  the 
assemblings  of  traitors.,  With  a  heart  that  beats 
true  to  the  king  of  the  land,  he  must  tarry  amongst 
those  who  have  thrown  off  allegiance.  On  all 
sides  he  must  hear  the  plottings  of  treason,  and 
behold  the  actings  of  rebellion.  Can  he  fail  to  be 
wrought  up  to  a  longing  and  effort  to  arrest,  in 
some  degree,  the  march  of  anarchy,  and  to  bring 
beneath  the  sceptre  of  righteousness  the  revolted 
and  ruined  population  1  Can  he  be  an  indifferent 
and  cold-hearted  spectator  of  the  despite  done  to 
God  by  every  class  of  society;  and  shall  there  be 
no  throbbing  of  spirit,  and  no  yearning  of  soul, 
23* 


270  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

over  thousands  of  his  race,  who,  though  re- 
deemed by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  are  preparing 
themselves  a  heritage  of  lire  and  shame  1  We  do 
but  reason  from  the  most  invariable  and  well- 
known  principles  of  our  nature,  when  we  argue 
that,  as  a  loyal  and  loving  subject  of  Christ,  the 
believer  must  glow  with  righteous  indignation  at 
the  bold  insults  offered  to  his  Lord,  and  long  to 
bend'  every  faculty  and  power  to  the  diminishing 
the  world's  wretchedness  by  overcoming  its  re- 
bellion. 

127.  Christian  zeal  increased  by  prevalence  of 
Wickedness, 

To  love  God's  commandments  above  gold, 
whilst  others  count  them  but  dross,  is  to  display 
a  noble  zeal  for  his  glory,  and  to  appear  as  the 
champions  of  his  cause,  when  that  cause  is  on 
the  point  of  being  universally  deserted.  The  pro- 
mise, moreover,  runs,  "  Them  that  honor  me,  I 
will  honor ;"  and  the  season,  therefore,  in  which 
the  greatest  honor  may  be  given  to  God,  is  that 
also  in  which  the  most  of  future  glory  may  be 
secured  by  the  righteous.  What,  shall  I  choose 
that  moment  for  turning  traitor  when  God  will 
be  most  glorified,  and  myself  most  advantaged, 
by  loyalty!  What,  relax  in  devotedness,  just 
when,  by  maintaining  my  allegiance,  I  may  bear 
the  noblest  testimony,  and  gain  the  highest  re- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  271 

compense  1  Ob,  where  the  heart  has  been  given 
to  God,  and  fixed  on  the  glories  of  heaven,  there 
should  be  a  feeling  that  days  in  which  religion  is 
most  decried  and  derided,  are  days  in  which 
zeal  should  be  warmest  and  profession  most  un- 
flinching. To  adhere  boldly  to  the  cause  of  righ- 
teousness, when  almost  solitary  in  adherence,  is 
to  fight  the  battle  when  champions  are  most 
needed,  and  when,  therefore,  victory  will  be  most 
triumphant.  Let,  then,  the  times  be  times  of  uni- 
versal defection  from  godliness — I  will  gather 
warmth  from  the  coldness  of  others,  courage  from 
their  cowardice,  loyalty  from  their  treason.  As 
I  gaze  on  what  is  passing  around  me,  I  am  not 
shaken  in  attachment  to  thy  service.  On  the  con- 
trary, thy  law  seems  to  me  more  precious  than 
ever,  for  in  now  keeping  thy  commandments  I 
can  give  thee  greater  glory,  and  find  greater  re- 
ward. They  have  made  void  thy  law  5  but  from 
my  heart  I  can  say,  u  Therefore,  on  that  very  ac- 
count, I  love  thy  commandments  above  gold,  yea, 
above  fine  gold." 

If  I  see  that  the  making  void  God's  law  is  the 
'most  effectual  mode  of  covering  a  land  with 
wretchedness,  unquestionably  it  is  in  the  being 
made  void  that  this  law  displays  its  claims  to  my 
attachment.  And  if,  therefore,  we  lived  in  times 
when  a  mighty  infidelity  was  pervading  our  cities 
and  our  villages,  and  men  were  advancing  by  ra- 


272  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

piJ  strides  towards  an  open  contempt,  or  denial 
of  God  5  the  divine  law,  if  we  had  ever  learnt  to 
prize  it,  would  command  itself  increasingly  to 
our  affections,  as  impiety  went  onward  to  its 
consummation.  We  should  more  and  more  re- 
cognize its  power  to  confer  happiness,  because 
we  should  more  and  more  observe  how  the  des- 
pising it  produced  misery.  We  should  more  and 
more  perceive  in  it  an  engine  for  counteracting 
human  degeneracy,  because  there  would  be,  on 
all  sides,  the  material  of  conviction,  that,  in  set- 
ting it  aside,  men  sank  to  the  lowest  level  of  de- 
gradation. We  should  more  and  more  regard  it 
as  the  best  boon  which  God  had  conferred  on  this 
creation,  because  we  should  increasingly  discover 
that  it  could  only  be  removed  by  substituting  a 
fearful  curse  in  its  stead.  And  would  not,  then, 
this  law  appear  more  deserving  than  ever  of  our 
veneration  and  attachment  % 

128.  Christian  Influence. 

There  is  in  the  human  mind — we  dare  not  say, 
a  bias  towards  virtue,  but — an  abiding,  and 
scarcely  to  be  overborne  consciousness,  that 
such  ought  to  be  the  bias,  and  that,  whensoever 
the  practical  leaning  is  to  vice,  there  is  irresisti- 
ble evidence  of  moral  derangement.  Whatever 
the  extent  of  human  degeneracy,  you  will  not 
find  that  right  and  wrong  have   so  changed  pla- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  273 

ces,  that,  in  being  the  slaves  of  vice,  men  reckon 
themselves  the  subjects  of  virtue.  There  is  a 
gnawing  restlessness  in  those  who  have  most 
abandoned  themselves  to  the  power  of  evil ;  and 
much  of  the  fierceness  of  their  profligacy  is  as- 
cribable  to  a  felt  necessity  of  keeping  down,  and 
stifling,  reproachful  convictions.  And  hence  it 
comes  to  pass  that  vice  will  ordinarily  feel  re- 
buked and  overawed  by  virtue,  and  that  those 
whom  you  would  think  dead  to  all  noble  princi- 
ple, will  be  disturbed  by  the  presence  of  an 
upright  and  God-fearing  man.  The  voice  of 
righteousness  will  find  something  of  an  echo 
amid  the  disorder  and  confusion  of  the  worst 
moral  chaos  ;  and  the  strings  of  conscience  are 
scarcely  ever  so  dislocated  and  torn  as  not  to 
yield  even  a  whisper,  when  swept  by  the  hand 
of  a  high-virtued  monitor.  So  that  the  godly  in 
a  neighborhood  wield  an  influence  which  is 
purely  that  of  godliness ;  and,  when  denied  op- 
portunities of  direct  interference,  check  by  exam- 
ple, and  reprove  by  conduct.  You  could  not  then 
measure  to  us  the  consequences  of  the  with 
drawment  of  the  salt  from  the  mass  of  a  popula 
tion ;  nor  calculate  the  rapidity  with  which,  on 
the  complete  removal  of  religious  men,  an  over- 
whelming corruption  would  pervade  all  society. 
129.  Strive. 
We  beseech  you,  that  ye  strive,  through  God's 


274<  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

grace,  to  give  yourselves  to  the  business  of  put- 
ting off  the  old  man.  Will  ye  affirm  that  ye  be- 
lieve there  is  a  heaven,  and  yet  act  as  though 
persuaded  that  it  is  not  worth  striving  for  1  Be- 
lieve, only  believe,  that  a  day  of  coronation  is 
yet  to  break  on  this  long-darkened  globe,  and 
the  sinews  will  be  strung,  like  those  of  the 
wrestlers  of  old,  who  saw  the  garlands  in  the 
judge's  hands,  and  locked  themselves  in  an  iron 
embrace.  Strive — for  the  grasp  of  a  destroyer  is 
upon  you,  and  if  ye  be  not  wrenched  away,  it 
will  palsy  you,  and  crush  you.  Strive — for  the 
foe  is  on  the  right  hand,  on  the  left  hand,  before 
you,  behind  you  5  and  ye  must  be  trampled  under 
foot,  if  ye  struggle  not,  and  strike  not,  as  those 
who  feel  themselves  bound  in  a  death-grapple. 
Strive — there  is  a  crown  to  be  won — the  mines 
of  the  earth  have  not  furnished  its  metal,  and 
the  depths  of  the  sea  hide  nothing  so  radiant  as 
the  jewels  with  which  it  is  wreathed.  Strive — 
for  if  ye  gain  not  this  crown — alas !  alas !  ye 
must  have  the  scorpions  for  ever  round  the  fore- 
head, and  the  circles  of  that  flame  which  is 
fanned  by  the  breath  of  the  Almighty's  dis- 
pleasure. 

Strive,  then,  but  strive  in  the  strength  of  your 
risen  Lord,  and  not  in  your  own.  Ye  know  not 
how  soon  that  Lord  may  come.  Whilst  the  sun 
walks  his  usual  path  on  the  firmament,  and  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  275 

grass  is  springing  in  our  fields,  and  merchants 
are  crowding  the  exchange,  and  politicians  jost- 
ling for  place,  and  the  voluptuous  killing  time, 
and  the  avaricious  counting  gold,  "  the  sign  of 
the  Son  of  Man  "  shall  be  seen  in  the  heavens, 
and  the  august  throne  of  fire  and  of  cloud  be 
piled  for  judgment. 

130.  Parable  of  the  two  Sons. 

M  Son,  go  work  to-day  in  my  vineyard,"  is 
the  message  which,  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  is  ut- 
tered in  God's  name  by  the  ordained  ministers 
of  Christ.  We  are  never  at  liberty  to  make  you 
any  offers  for  to-morrow,  but  must  always  tell 
you,  that,  w  if  to-day  you  will  hear  his  voice,"  he 
is  ready  to  receive  you  into  the  vineyard  of  his 
church.  And  it  is  not  to  a  life  of  inactivity  and 
idleness  that  we  are  bidden  to  summon  you,  not 
to  that  inert  dependence  on  the  merits  of  an- 
other which  shall  exclude  all  necessity  for  per- 
sonal striving.  We  call  you,  on  the  contrary,  to 
work  in  the  vineyard.  If  you  think  to  be  saved 
without  labor ;  if  you  imagine,  that,  because 
Christ  has  done  all  that  is  necessary  in  the  way 
of  merit,  there  remains  nothing  to  be  done  by 
yourselves  in  the  way  of  condition,  you  are  yield- 
ing to  a  delusion  which  must  be  as  wilful  as  it 
will  be  fatal — the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture  un- 
reservedly declaring,  that,  if  you  would  enter 


276  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

into  life,  you  must  "work  out  your  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling."  And  thus  the  mes- 
sage, "  Son,  go  work  to-day  in  my  vineyard,"  is 
in  every  respect  that  which  God  is  continually 
addressing  to  you  through  the  mouth  of  his  min- 
istering servants,  a  message  declaratory  that 
"now  is  the  accepted  time,"  and  requiring  you 
to  put  forth  every  energy  that  you  may  escape 
rt  the  wrath  to  come." 

There  are  two  cautions  suggested  by  this  para- 
ble. The  first  is  to  parents,  and  guardians,  and 
ministers  5  in  short,  to  all  whose  business  it  may 
be  to  counsel  and  instruct.  Let  not  the  apparent 
want  of  success  induce  you  to  relax  in  your  en- 
deavors. He  who  gives  you  a  flat  refusal,  may 
ultimately  reward  you  better  than  he  who  gives 
you  a  fair  promise.  Be  not,  therefore,  disheart- 
ened ;  but  rather  act  on  the  wise  man's  advice, 
*  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  even- 
ing withhold  not  thy  hand ;  for  thou  knowest  not 
whether  shall  prosper,  either  this  or  that,  or 
whether  they  both  shall  be  alike  good." 

The  second  caution  is  to  those  who  may  be 
ready,  with  the  first  son,  to  give  a  direct  refusal, 
when  bidden  to  go  and  work  in  the  vineyard. 
Let  not  the  thought  that  you  may  afterwards 
repent,  encourage  you  in  your  determination 
that  you  will  not  yet  obey.  The  man  who  pre- 
sumes on  what  is  told  us  of  the  first  son,  will 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  277 

never,  in  all  probability,  be  represented  by  that 
son.  I  may  have  hopes  of  a  man  whose  moral 
slumbers  I  cannot  at  all  break  ;  I  almost  despair 
of  a  man  whom  I  can  so  far  awaken  that  he 
makes  a  resolution  to  delay.  The  determining  to 
put  off  is  the  worst  of  all  symptoms  :  it  shows 
that  conscience  has  been  roused,  and  then  paci- 
fied ;  and  wo  unto  the  man  who  has  drugs  with 
which  he  can  lull  conscience  to  sleep.  "  Go, 
work  to-day  in  my  vineyard."  To-morrow  the 
pulse  may  be  still,  and  there  is  "  no  work  nor 
wisdom  in  the  grave."  To-day  ye  are  yet 
amongst  the  living,  and  may  enroll  yourselves 
with  the  laborers  whose  harvest  shall  be  im- 
mortality. 

131.  Present  rewards  of  Well-doing. 

It  is  the  marvellous  property  of  spiritual  things, 
though  we  can  scarcely  affirm  it  of  natural,  that 
the  effort  to  teach  them  to  others  gives  enlarge- 
ment to  our  own  sphere  of  information.  We  are 
persuaded  that  the  most  experienced  christian 
cannot  sit  down  with  the  neglected  and  grossly 
ignorant  laborer — nay,  not  with  the  child  in  a 
Sunday  or  infant-school — and  strive  to  explain 
and  enforce  the  great  truths  of  the  Bible,  without 
finding  his  own  views  of  the  Gospel  amplified 
and  cleared  through  this  engagement  in  the  bu- 
siness of  tuition.  The  mere  trying  to  make  a 
24 


278  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

point  plain  to  another  will  oftentimes  make  it  far 
plainer  than  ever  to  ourselves.  In  illustrating  a 
doctrine  of  Scripture,  in  endeavoring  to  bring  it 
down  to  the  level  o^  a  weak  or  undisciplined  un- 
derstanding, you  will  find  that  doctrine-  present- 
ing itself  to  your  own  mind  with  a  new  power 
and  unimagined  beauty  ;  and  though  you  may 
have  read  the  standard  writers  on  theology,  and 
mastered  the  essays  of  the  most  learned  divines, 
yet  shall  such  fresh  and  vigorous  apprehensions 
of  truth  be  derived  often  from  the  effort  to  press 
it  home  on  the  intellect  and  conscience  of  the 
ignorant,  that  you  shall  pronounce  the  cottage 
of  the  untaught  peasant  your  best  school-house, 
and  the  questions  even  of  a  child  your  most 
searching  catechisings  on  the  majestic  and  mys- 
terious things  of  our  faith.  And  as  you  tell  over 
to  the  poor  cottager  the  story  of  the  incarnation 
and  crucifixion,  and  inform  him  of  the  nature 
and  effects  of  Adam's  apostasy ;  or  even  find 
yourself  required  to  adduce  more  elementary 
truths,  pressing  on  the  neglected  man  the  being 
of  a  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  oh, 
it  shall  constantly  occur  that  you  will  feel  a 
keener  sense  than  ever  of  the  preciousness  of 
Christ,  or  a  greater  awe  at  the  majesties  of 
Jehovah,  or  a  loftier  bounding  of  spirit  at  the 
thought  of  your  own  deathlessness.  In  teaching 
another   you    teach    also    yourself,    and   carry 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  279 

away  from  your  intercourse  with  the  mechanic, 
or  the  child,  such  an  accession  to  your  own 
knowledge,  or  your  own  love,  as  shall  seem  to 
make  you  the  indebted  party,  and  not  the  obliging. 

132.  Ambition. 

We  think  it  nothing  better  than  a  libel  on 
Christianity,  to  declare  of  the  ambitious  man, 
that,  if  he  become  religious,  he  must,  in  every 
sense,  cease  to  be  ambitious.  If  it  have  been 
his  ambition  to  rise  high  in  the  dignities  of  a 
state,  to  win  to  himself  the  plaudits  of  a  multi- 
tude, to  twine  his  forehead  with  the  wreaths  of 
popular  favor,  to  be  foremost  amongst  the  heroes 
of  war  or  the  professors  of  science — the  intro- 
duced humility  of  a  disciple  of  Christ,  bringing 
him  down  from  all  the  heights  of  carnal  ascend- 
ancy, will  be  quite  incompatible  with  this  his  am- 
bition, so  that  his  discipleship  may  be  tested  by 
its  suppression  and  destruction.  But  ail  those  ele- 
ments of  character  which  went  to  the  making  up 
this  ambition — the  irrepressible  desire  of  some 
imagined  good,  the  fixedness  of  purpose,  the 
strenuousness  of  exertion — these  remain,  and  are 
not  to  be  annihilated  ;  requiring  only  the  propo- 
sition of  a  holy  object,  and  they  wTill  instantly  be 
concentrated  into  a  holy  ambition.  And  Christi- 
anity propounds  this  object.  Christianity  deals 
with  ambition  as  a  passion  to  be  abhorred  and 
denounced,  whilst .  urging  the  warrior  to  carve 


280  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

his  way  to  a  throne,  or  the  courtier  to  press  on 
in  the  path  of  preferment.  But  it  does  not  cast 
out  the  elements  of  the  passion.  Why  should  it  1 
They  are  the  noblest  which  enter  into  the  human 
composition,  hearing-  most  vividly  the  impress  of 
man's  original  formation.  Christianity  seizes  on 
these  elements.  She  tells  her  subjects  that  the 
rewards  of  eternity,  though  all  purchased  by 
Christ,  and  none  merited  by  man,  shall  be  accord- 
ing to  their  works.  She  tells  them  that  there  are 
places  of  dignity,  and  stations  of  eminence,  and 
crowns  with  more  jewelry,  and  sceptres  with 
more  sway,  in  that  glorious  empire  which  shall 
finally  be  set  up  by  the  Mediator.  And  she  bids 
them  strive  for  the  loftier  recompense.  She 
would  not  have  them  contented  with  the  lesser 
portion,  though  infinitely  out-doing  human  imagi- 
nation as  well  as  human  desert.  And  if  ambition 
be  the  walking  with  the  firm  step,  and  the  single 
eye,  and  the  untired  zeal,  and  all  in  pursuit  of 
some  longed-for  and  noble  elevation,  Christianity 
saith  not  to  the  man  of  ambition,  lay  aside  thine 
ambition :  Christianity  hath  need  of  the  firm  step, 
and  the  single  eye,  and  the  untired  zeal ;  and 
she,  therefore,  sets  before  the  man  pyramid  rising 
above  pyramid  in  glory,  throne  above  throne, 
palace  above  palace ;  and  she  sends  him  forth 
into  the  moral  arena  to  wrestle  for  the  loftiest, 
though  unworthy  of  the  lowest. 

We  shall  not  hesitate  to  argue  that  in  this,  as 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  281 

in  other  modes  which  might  he  indicated,  Christi- 
anity provides  an  antagonist  to  that  listlessness 
which  a  feeling  of  security  might  be  supposed  to 
engender.  She  does  not  allow  the  believer  to 
imagine  everything  done,  when  a  title  to  the 
kingdom  has  been  obtained.  She  still  shows  him 
that  the  trials  of  the  last  great  assize  shall  pro- 
ceed most  accurately  on  the  evidence  of  works. 
There  is  no  swerving  in  the  Bible  from  this  re- 
presentation. And  if  one  man  become  a  ruler 
over  ten  cities,  and  another  over  five,  and  another 
over  two — each  receiving  in  exact  proportion  to 
his  improvement  of  talents — it  is  clear  as  de- 
monstration can  make  it,  that  our  strivings  will 
have  a  vast  influence  on  our  recompense,  and 
that,  though  no  iota  of  blessedness  shall  be  por- 
tioned out  to  the  righteous  which  is  not  altoge- 
ther an  undeserved  gift,  the  arrangements  of  the 
judgment  will  balance  most  nicely  what  is  be- 
stowed and  what  is  performed.  It  shall  not  be 
said,  that,  because  secure  of  admission  into  hea- 
ven, the  justified  man  has  nothing  to  excite  him 
to  toil.  He  is  to  wrestle  for  a  place  amongst 
spirits  of  chief  renown :  he  is  to  propose  to  him- 
self a  station  near  the  throne  :  he  is  to  fix  his 
eye  on  a  reward  sparkling  with  the  splendors  of 
eternity,  and  whilst  bowed  to  the  dust  under  a 
sense  of  utter  unworthiness,  he  is  to  aspire  to 
the  richest  and  most  radiant  of  prizes. 


282  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

133.  Men's  abuse  of  the  Divine  Forbearance* 

There  is  no  property  of  the  divine  nature 
which  demands  more,  whether  of  our  admira- 
tion or  of  our  gratitude,  than  long-suffering.  The 
long-suffering  of  God  is  wonderftrlf  because  it  in- 
dicates the  putting  constraint  on  his  own  attri- 
butes;  it  is  omnipotence  exerted^over  the  Omni- 
potent himself. 

So  far  as  our  own  interests  are  concerned,  you 
will  readily  admit  that  we  are  extraordinarily  in- 
debted to  the  divine  forbearance.  Those  of  us 
who  are  now  walking  the  path  of  life,  where 
would  they  have  been,  had  not  God  borne  long 
with  them,  refusing,  as  it  were,  to  be  wearied  out 
by  their  perversity  1  Those  who  are  yet  "  stran- 
gers from  the  covenant  of  promise,"  to  what  but 
the  patience  of  their  Maker  is  it  owing,  that  they 
have  not  been  cut  down  as  cumberers  of  the 
ground,  but  still  stand  within  the  possibilities  of 
forgiveness  and  acceptance  1  But  it  is  a  melan- 
choly thing  that  we  are  compelled  to  add,  that 
there  is  a  great  tendency  in  all  of  us  to  the  abu- 
sing God's  long-suffering,  and  to  the  so  presum- 
ing on  his  forbearance  as  to  continue  in  sin.  We 
may  be  sure  that  a  vast  outward  reformation 
would  be  wrought  on  the  world,  if  there  were 
a  sudden  change  in  God's  dealings,  so  that 
punishment  followed  instantaneously  on  crime. 
If  the  Almighty  wTere  to  mark  out  certain  offences, 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  283 

the  perpetration  of  which  he  would  immediately 
visit  with  death,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  these 
offences  would  be  shunned  with  the  greatest 
carefulness,  and  that,  too,  by  the  very  men  whom 
no  exhortatior^s,  and  no  warnings,  can  now  deter 
from  their  commission.  Yet  it  is  not  that  punish- 
ment is  one  jot  less  certain  now  than  it  would  be 
on  the  supposed  change  of  arrangement.  The 
only  difference  is,  that,  in  one  case,  God  displays 
long-suffering,  and  that  in  the  other  he  would  • 
not  display  long-suffering — the  certainty  that  pu- 
nishment will  follow  crime  is  quite  the  same  in 
both.  And  thus,  unhappily,  sin  is  less  avoided 
than  it  would  be  if  we  lived  under  an  economy 
of  immediate  retribution  ;  and  "  because  sentence 
against  an  evil  work  is  not  executed  speedily, 
therefore  the  heart  of  the  sons  of  men  is  fully  set 
in  them  to  do  evil."  In  place  of  being  softened 
by  the  patience  of  which  we  have  so  long  been 
the  objects,  we  are  apt  to  be  encouraged  by  it  to 
further  resistance  ;  calculating  that  he  who  has 
so  often  forborne  to  strike,  will  spare  a  little 
longer,  and  that  we  may  with  safety  yet  defer  to 
repent. 

It  is,  therefore,  of  great  importance  that  men 
be  taught  that  there  are  limits  even  to  the  for- 
bearance of  God,  and  that  it  is  possible  so  to 
presume  on  it  as  to  exhaust. 


284*  EIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

134.  Warning. 

Who  would  not  be  a  believer  in  Christ  1  who 
would  not  be  at  peace  with  God  1    When  such 
are  the  privileges  of  righteousness,  the  privileges 
through  life,  the  privileges  in  death,  the  wonder 
is,  that  all  are  not  eager  to  close  with  the  offers 
of  the  Gospel,  and  n/ake  those  privileges  their 
own.     Yet,  alas,  the  ministers  of  Christ  have  to 
exclaim,  with  the  prophet,  rt  who  hath  believed 
our   report  1"    and,   with    Elihu,    f '  none    saith, 
where  is  God  my  Maker,  who  giveth  songs  in  the 
night  V'  There  may  yet  be  moral  insensibility  in 
some   now  addressed.     What  shall   we    say  to 
them  1  They  may  have  youth  on  their  side,  and 
health,  and  plenty.    The  sky  may  be  clear,  and 
the  voice  of  joy  may  be  heard  in  their  dwelling. 
But  there  must  come  a  night,  a  dreary  and  op- 
pressive  night ;    for   youth    must    depart,    and 
strength  be  enfeebled,  and  sorrow  encountered, 
and  the  shadows  of  evening  fall  upon  the  path. 
And  what  will  they  do  then,  if  now,  as  God  com- 
plains by  his  prophet,  M  the  harp  and  the  viol, 
the  tabret,  and  pipe,  and  wine,  are  in  their  feasts, 
but  they  regard  not  the  work  of  the  Lord,  neither 
consider  the  operation  of  his  hands  V*  They  may 
have  their  song  now ;  but  then  we  shall  have  only 
the  bitter  exclamation,   "  the  harvest  is  passed, 
the  summer  is  ended,  and  we  are  not  saved.7'  We 
warn  you  in  time.    Though  the  firmament  be 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  285 

bright,  we  show  you  the  cloud,,  small  as  a  man's 
hand,  already  rising  from  the  sea ;  and  we  urge 
you  to  the  breaking  loose  from  habits  of  sin,  and 
fleeing  straightway  to  the  Mediator  Christ.  It  is 
for  baubles  which  they  despise  when  acquired, 
wealth  which  they  count  nothing  when  gained, 
gratifications  which  they  loathe  so  soon  as  passed, 
that  men  sell  their  souls.  And  all  that  we  now 
entreat  of  the  young,  is,  that  they  will  not,  in 
the  spring-time  of  life,  strike  this  foul  bargain. 
In  the  name  of  Him  who  made  you,  we  beseech 
you  to  separate  yourselves  at  once  from  evil 
practices  and  evil  associates  ;  lest,  in  that  darkest 
of  all  darkness,  when  the  sun  is  to  be  "  black  as 
sackcloth  of  hair,"  and  the  moon  as  blood,  and 
the  stars  are  to  fall,  you  may  utter  nothing  but 
the  passionate  cry  of  despair ;  whilst  the  righ- 
teous are  lifting  up  their  heads  with  joy,  and 
proving  that  they  have  trusted  in  a  God  <f  who 
giveth  songs  in  the  night." 

135.  Consideration. 

In  Scripture  we  find  great  worth  attached  to 
consideration — as  when  the  Psalmist  says,  "  I 
thought  on  my  ways,  and  turned  my  feet  to  thy 
testimonies."  Here  the  turning  to  God's  testimo- 
nies is  given  by  David  as  an  immediate  conse- 
quence of  the  thinking  on  his  ways,  as  though 
consideration  were  alone  necessary  to  insure  a 


286  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

speedy  repentance.  The  great  evil  with  the  mass 
of  men  is,  that,  so  far  at  least  as  eternity  is  con- 
cerned, they  never  think  at  all — once  make  them 
think,  and  you  make  them  anxious;  once  make 
them  anxious,  and  they  will  labor  to  be  saved. 
When  a  man  considers  his  ways,  angels  may  be 
said  to  prepare  their  harps,  that  they  may  sweep 
them  in  exultation  at  his  repentance. 

135.   Want  of  Consideration. 

If  as  fast  as  we  gather  information  into  the 
chambers  of  the  mind,  we  were  also  gathering 
motive  into  the  recesses  of  the  soul,  it  is  evident 
that  each  page  of  Scripture,  as  we  possessed 
ourselves  of  its  announcements,  would  minister  to 
our  earnestness  in  wrestling  for  immortality.  But 
the  melancholy  fact  is,  that  we  may,  and  that  we 
do,  increase  the  amount  of  information,  without 
practically  increasing  the  amount  of  motive.  It  is 
quite  supposable  that  there  are  some  who,  by  a 
regular  attendance  on  Sabbath  ministrations,  and 
by  diligent  study  of  the  Bible,  have  acquired  no 
inconsiderable  acquaintance  with  the  scheme  and 
bearings  of  Christianity ;  but  who  are  neverthe- 
less as  worldly-minded,  in  spite  of  their  theology, 
as  though  ignorant  of  the  grand  truths  disclosed 
by  revelation.  We  might  subject  these  persons 
to  a  strict  examination,  and  try  them  in  the  seve- 
ral departments    of  divinity.     And  they   might 


*         BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  287 

come  off  from  the  scrutiny  with  the  greatest  ap- 
plause, and  be  pronounced  admirably  conversant 
with  the  truths  of  the  Bible.  But  of  all  the  know- 
ledge thus  displayed,  there  might  not  be  a  par- 
ticle which  wielded  any  influence  over  actions. 
The  whole  might  be  reposing  inertly  in  the  soli- 
tudes of  the  memory,  ready  indeed  to  be  sum- 
moned forth  when  its  possessor  is  called  into 
some  arena  of  controversy,  but  no  more  woven 
into  the  business  of  every-day  life,  than  if  it  were 
knowledge  of  facts  which  are  unimportant,  or  of 
truths  which  are  speculative.  And  the  main  rea- 
son of  this  is  the  want  of  consideration.  You 
know  there  is  a  God;  but  you  do  not  fear  this 
God,  you  do  not  live  under  a  sense  of  his  pre- 
sence and  an  apprehension  of  his  wrath,  because 
you  do  not  consider  that  there  is  a  God. 

137.  Futurity, 

You  will  find  it  said  in  the  Book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes,  V  Because  to  every  purpose  there  is  time 
and  judgment,  therefore  the  misery  of  man  is 
great  upon  him.  It  seems  to  us  implied  in  these 
words,  that  our  incapacity  of  looking  into  the 
future  has  much  to  do  with  the  production  of 
disquietude  and  unhappiness.  And  there  is  no 
question,  that  the  darkness  in  which  we  are  com- 
pelled to  proceed,  and  the  uncertainty  which 
hangs   round   the    issues  of    our   best-arranged 


288  EII3LE    THOUGHTS. 

schemes,  contribute  much  to  the  troubles  and 
perplexities  of  life.  Under  the  present  dispensa- 
tion we  must  calculate  on  probabilities  ;  and  our 
calculations,  when  made  with  the  best  care  and 
forethought,  are  often  proved  faulty  by  the  re- 
sult. And  if  we  could  substitute  certainty  for 
probability,  and  thus  define,  with  a  thorough  ac- 
curacy, the  workings  of  any  proposed  plan,  it  is 
evident  that  we  might  be  saved  a  vast  amount 
both  of  anxiety  and  of  disappointment.  Much  of 
our  anxiety  is  now  derived  from  the  doubtfulness 
of  the  success  of  schemes,  and  from  the  likeli- 
hood of  obstruction  and  mischance  :  much  of 
our  disappointment  from  the  overthrow  and 
failure  of  long-cherished  purposes.  And,  of 
course,  if  we  possessed  the  same  mastery  of  the 
future  as  of  the  past,  we  should  enter  upon 
nothing  which  was  sure  to  turn  out  ill ;  but,  re- 
gulating ourselves  in  every  undertaking  hy  fore- 
known results,  avoid  much  of  previous  debate 
and  of  after  regret. 

Yet  when  we  have  admitted  that  want  of  ac- 
quaintance with  the  future  gives  rise  to  much 
both  of  anxiety  and  of  disappointment,  we  are 
prepared  to  argue,  that  the  possession  of  this 
acquaintance  would  be  incalculably  more  detri- 
mental. It  is  quite  true  that  there  are  forms  and 
portions  of  trouble  which  might  be  warded  off  or 
escaped,  if  we  could  behold  what  is  coming,  and 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  289 

take  measures  accordingly.  But  it  is  to  the  full 
as  true,  that  the  main  of  what  shall  befall  us  is 
matter  of  irrevocable  appointment,  to  be  averted 
by  no  prudence,  and  dispersed  by  no  bravery. 
And  if  we  could  know  beforehand  whatever  is  to 
happen,  we  should,  in  all  probability,  be  unman- 
ned and  enervated  ;  so  that  an  arrest  would  bo 
put  on  the  businesses  of  life  by  previous  acquaint- 
ance with  their  several  successes.  The  parent 
who  is  pouring  his  attention  on  the  education  of 
a  child,  or  laboring  to  procure  for  him  advance- 
ment and  independence,  would  be  unable  to  go 
forward  with  his  efforts,  if  certified  that  he  must 
follow  that  child  to  the  grave  so  soon  as  he  hrd 
fitted  him  for  society  and  occupation.  And  even 
if  the  map  were  a  bright  one,  so  that  we  looked 
on  sunny  things  as  fixed  for  our  portion,  famili- 
arity with  the  prospect  would  deteriorate  it  to 
our  imagination  ;  and  blessings  would  seem  to  us 
of  less  and  less  worth,  as  they  came  on  us  more 
and  more  as  matters  of  course.  In  real  truth,  it 
is  our  ignorance  of  what  shall  happen  which  sti- 
mulates exertion ;  we  are  so  constituted,  that  to 
deprive  us  of  hope  would  be  to  make  us  inactive 
and  wretched.  And,  therefore,  do  we  hold  that 
one  great  proof  of  God's  loving-kindness  towards 
us,  may  be  fetched  from  that  impenetrable  con- 
cealment in  which  he  wraps  up  to-morrow.  We 
long,  indeed,  to  bring  to-morrow  into  to-day,  and 
25 


290  BIBLK    THOUGHTS. 

strain  the  eye  in  the  fruitless  endeavor  to  scan 
its  occurrences.  But  it  is,  in  a  great  degree,  my 
ignorance  of  to-morrow  which  makes  me  vigi- 
lant, and  energetic,  and  pains-taking,  to-day. 
And  if  I  could  see  to-day,  that  a  great  calamity 
or  a  great  success  would  undoubtedly  befall  me 
to-morrow,  the  likelihood  is  that  I  should  be  so 
overcome,  either  by  sorrow  or  by  delight,  as  to 
be  unfitted  for  those  duties  with  which  the 
present  hour  is  charged. 

138.  Socinianism. 

If  I  durst  choose  between  poison-cups,  I  would 
take  Deism  rather  than  Socinianism.  It  seems 
better  to  reject  as  forgery,  than,  having  received 
as  truth,  to  drain  of  meaning ;  to  use,  without  re- 
serve, the  sponge  and  the  thumb-screw  ;  the  one, 
when  passages  are  too  plain  for  controversy,  the 
other,  when  against  us,  till  unmercifully  tortured. 

139.  Backslider. 

If  I  have  been  what  Scripture  calls  a  backslider, 
may  not  memory  tell  me  of  comforts  I  experienc- 
ed, when  walking  closely  with  God,  of  seasons 
of  deep  gladness  when  I  had  mortified  a  passion, 
of  communion  with  eternity  so  real  and  distinct 
that  I  seemed  already  delivered  from  the  tram- 
mels of  flesh  %  It  may  well  be,  if  indeed  I  have 
declined  in  godliness,  that,  though  musing  on  past 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  291 

times,  there  will  be  excited  within  me  a  poignant 
regret.  There  will  come  back  upon  me,  as  upon 
the  criminal  in  his  cell,  the  holy  music  of  better 
days ;  and  there  will  be  a  penetrating  power  in 
the  once  gladdening  but  now  melancholy  strain, 
which  there  would  not  be  in  the  shrill  note  of  ven- 
geance. And  thus,  in  each  case,  memory  may  be 
a  mighty  agent  in  bringing  me  to  repentance.  It 
can  scarcely  come  to  pass,  that  I  should  diligent- 
ly and  seriously  remember  whence  I  am  fallen, 
and  yet  be  conscious  of  no  desire  to  regain  the 
lost  position.  I  cannot  gaze  on  Paradise,  and  not 
long  to  leave  the  wilderness  ;  I  cannot  see  in  my- 
self the  wanderer,  and  not  yearn  for  the  home  I 
have  forsaken.  We  know  that  except  men  repent, 
except  the  indifferent  be  roused  to  earnestness,  the 
backsliding  recovered  to  consistency,  nothing  can 
prevent  their  final  destruction.  And  wishing  to 
bring  them  to  repentance,  we  would  waken  memo- 
ry from  her  thousand  cells,  and  bid  her  pour  forth 
the  imagery  of  what  they  were,  that  they  may 
contrast  it  with  what  they  are.  If  we  can  arm 
against  them  their  own  recollections,  we  feel  that 
we  shall  have  brought  to  bear  the  most  powerful 
of  engines.  Our  appeal  is  therefore  to  the  past, 
our  summons  is  to  the  shades  of  the  dead.  And 
though  we  know  that  no  remonstrance,  and  no 
exhortation,  can  be  of  avail,  except  as  carried  to 
the  heart  by  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God,  yet  aro 


292  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

we  so  persuaded  of  the  power  of  consideration, 
and  of  the  likelihood  that  those  who  are  brought 
to  consider  their  ways  will  go  on  to  reform  them, 
that  we  think  we  prescribe  what  cannot  fail  of 
success,  when,  in  order  that  men  may  repent,  we 
entreat  them  to  remember  from  whence  they  are 
fallen,  and  do  the  first  works. 

14-0.    Danger  of  ike  removal  of  the  Candlestick* 

This  may  take  place,  for  undoubtedly  this  has 
taken  place.  There  are  indeed  clear  and  encoura- 
ging promises  in  Scripture,  sufficient  to  assure  us 
that  neither  outward  opposition,  nor  inward  cor- 
ruption, shall  prevail  to  the  extinction  of  Christ's 
church  upon  earth.  But  these  promises  refer  ge- 
nerally to  the  church,  and  not  to  this  or  that  of  its 
sections.  They  give  no  ground  for  expecting  that 
the  church,  for  example,  of  England,  or  the 
church  of  Rome,  will  never  cease  to  be  a  church 
— on  the  contrary,  their  tenor  is  quite  compatible 
with  the  supposition,  that  England  or  Rome  may 
so  pervert,  or  abuse,  the  Gospel,  as  to  provoke 
God  to  withdraw  it,  and  give  it  to  lands  now  over- 
run with  heathenism.  There  may  be,  and  there 
are,  promises  that  there  shall  be  always  a  candle 
in  the  world ;  but  the  candlestick  is  a  moveable 
thing,  and  may  be  placed  successively  in  different 
districts  of  the  earth. 

And  we  say  that  this  unchurching  of  a  nation 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  293 

is  what  has  actually  occurred,  and  what  therefore 
may  occur  again,  if  mercies  he  abused  and  pri- 
vileges neglected.  We  appeal  to  the  instance  of 
the  Jews.  The  Jews  constituted  the  church  of 
God,  whilst  all  other  tribes  of  the  human  popu- 
lation were  strangers  and  aliens.  And  never  were 
a  people  more  beloved  ;  never  had  a  nation  great- 
er evidences  of  divine  favor  on  which  to  rest  a 
persuasion  that  they  should  not  be  cast  off  and 
deprived  of  their  advantages.  Yet  how  complete- 
ly has  the  candlestick  been  removed  from  Judea. 
The  land  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob ; 
the  land  which  held  the  ark  with  its  mysterious 
and  sacramental  treasures  ;  the  land  where  priests 
made  atonement,  and  prophets  delivered  their 
lofty  anticipations  ;  the  land  which  Jesus  trode, 
where  Jesus  preached,  and  where  Jesus  died  ; 
has  been  tenanted  for  centuries  by  the  unbeliever, 
profaned  by  the  followers,  and  desecrated  by  the 
altars,  of  the  Arabian  impostor. 

We  appeal  again  to  the  early  churches.  Where 
are  those  christian  societies  to  which  St.  Paul  and 
St.  John  inscribed  their  epistles  1  Where  is  the 
Corinthian  church,  so  affectionately  addressed, 
though  so  boldly  reproved,  by  the  great  apostle 
of  the  Gentiles  1  Where  is  the  Philippian  church, 
where  the  Colossian,  where  the  Thessalonian,  the 
letters  to  which  prove  how  cordially  Christianity 
had  been  received,  and  how  vigorously  it  flourish- 
25* 


294  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ed  1  Where  are  the  Seven  Churches  of  Asia,  re- 
specting which  we  are  assured  that  they  were 
once  strenuous  in  piety,  and  gave  promise  of  per- 
manence in  Christian  profession  and  privilege  1 
Alas,  how  true  is  it  that  the  candlesticks  have 
been  removed.  Countries  in  which  the  Gospel 
was  first  planted,  cities  where  it  took  earliest  root, 
from  these  have  all  traces  of  Christianity  long  ago 
disappeared,  and  in  these  has  the  cross  been  sup- 
planted by  the  crescent.  The  traveler  through 
lands  where  apostles  won  their  noblest  victories, 
where  martyrs  witnessed  a  good  confession,  and 
thousands  sprang  eagerly  forwards  to  be  "  baptiz- 
ed for  the  dead,"  and  to  fill  up  every  breach  which 
persecution  made  in  the  christian  ranks,  can 
scarce  find  a  monument  to  assure  him  that  he 
stands  where  once  congregated  the  followers  of 
Jesus.  Every  where  he  is  surrounded  by  super- 
stitions little  better  than  those  of  heathenism,  so 
that  the  unchurching  of  these  lands  has  been  the 
giving  them  up  to  an  Egyptian  darkness.  And 
what  are  we  to  say  of  such  facts,  except  that  they 
prove — prove  with  a  clearness  and  awfulness  of 
demonstration,  which  leave  ignorance  inexcusa- 
ble, and  indifference  self-condemned — that  the 
blessings  of  Christianity  are  deposited  with  a  na- 
tion to  be  valued  and  improved,  and  that  to  despise 
or  misuse  them  is  to  provoke  their  withdrawment ! 
If  we  could  trace  the  histories  of  the    several 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  295 

churches  to  which  we  have  referred,  we  should 
find  that  they  all  n  left  their  first  love,"  grew  luke- 
warm in  religion,  or  were  daunted  by  danger  into 
apostasy.  There  was  no  lack  of  warning,  none  of 
exhortation  ;  for  it  is  never  suddenly,  never  with- 
out a  protracted  struggle,  that  God  proceeds  to 
extremes,  whether  with  a  church  or  an  individual. 
But  warning  and  exhortation  were  in  vain.  False 
teachers  grew  into  favor  ;  false  doctrines  super- 
seded the  true ;  with  erroneous  tenets  came 
their  general  accompaniment,  dissolute  practice  ; 
till  at  length,  if  the  candlestick  remained,  the 
light  was  extinct ;  and  then  God  gave  the  sen- 
tence, that  the  candlestick  should  be  removed  out 
of  his  place. 

141.  Believer  profited  by  the  experience  of  others. 

Let  a  man  be  a  believer  in  Christ,  and  every 
day  of  his  life  will  bring  him  intelligence,  from 
external  testimony,  of  the  worth  of  the  Being  on 
whom  he  fastens  his  faith.  The  witnesses  who 
stand  out  and  attest  the  excellencies  of  the  Me- 
diator, occupy  the  whole  scale  of  intelligence, 
from  the  Creator  downwards,  through  every  rank 
of  the  creature.  The  man  of  faith  hears  the 
Father  himself  bearing  testimony  by  a  voice 
from  heaven,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom 
I  am  well  pleased"     He  hears  angels  and  arch- 


296  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

angels  lauding  and  magnifying  Christ's  glorious 
name  :  for  do  not  the  winged  hierarchies  of  hea- 
ven bow  to  him  the  knee,  and  that,  too,  as  the  con- 
sequence of  his  work  of  mediation  1  He  hears 
patriarchs  who  lived  in  the  infancy  of  the  world  ; 
prophets  who  took  up  in  succession  the  mighty 
strain,  and  sent  it  on  from  century  to  century ; 
apostles  who  went  out  to  the  battle  with  idolatry, 
and  counted  not  their  lives  dear  to  them,  so  that 
they  might  plant  the  cross  amid  the  wilds  of  su- 
perstition : — he  hears  all  these,  with  one  heart 
and  one  voice,  witnessing  to  Jesus,  as  the  Son  of 
the  Highest,  the  Saviour  of  the  lost.  And  he 
hears,  moreover,  the  martyrs  and  the  confessors 
of  every  generation  ;  the  saints  who  have  held 
fast  their  allegiance  on  the  rack  and  in  the  fur* 
nace  ;  the  noble  champions  who  have  risen  up  in 
the  days  of  a  declining  church,  and  shed  their 
blood  like  water  in  defence  of  the  purity  of  doc- 
trine ;  he  hears  the  men  of  whom  the  world  was 
not  worthy  uttering  an  unflinching  attestation  to 
the  willingness  and  ability  of  Christ  to  succor 
those  who  give  themselves  to  his  service.  And 
he  hears,  finally,  a  voice  from  the  thousands  who, 
in  more  private  stations,  have  taken  Christ  as 
their  Lord  and  their  God ;  who,  in  dependance 
on  his  might,  have  gone  unobtrusively  through 
duty  and  trial,  and  then  have  lain  down  on  the 
death-bed,  and  worn  a  smile  amid  the  decayings 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  297 

of  the  body, — and  this  voice  bears  witness,  that 
lie  in  whom  they  have  trusted,  has  proved  himself 
all-sufficient  to  deliver.  And  if  we  do  right  in 
arguing  that  there  is  poured  in  gradually  upon  a 
believer  this  scarcely  measurable  evidence  to  the 
power  and  faithfulness  of  Christ,  will  it  not  come 
to  pass  that  he  grows  every  day  more  acquainted 
with  the  excellencies  of  the  Saviour  :  so  that  by 
gathering  in  from  the  accumulated  stores  of  the 
testimony  of  others,  he  will  be  able,  with  a  con- 
tinually strengthening  assurance,  to  declare,  / 
know  whom  I  have  believed. 

142.    Religious  Biography. 

There  is  great  value  in  the  registered  experi- 
ence of  the  believers  of  other  days.  In  truth,  the 
biography  of  the  righteous  is  among  the  best 
treasures  possessed  by  the  church.  It  is,  in  one 
sense  at  least,  a  vast  advantage  to  us  that  we  live 
late  in  the  world.  We  have  all  the  benefit  of  the 
spiritual  experience  of  many  centuries,  which  has 
been  bequeathed  to  us  as  a  legacy  of  more  worth 
than  large  wealth  or  far- spreading  empire.  We 
have  not  to  tread  a  path  in  which  we  have  no  pre- 
cursors. Far  as  the  eye  can  reach  the  road  which 
we  have  to  traverse  is  crowded  with  beckoning 
forms,  as  though  the  sepulchres  gave  up  their  host 
of  worthies,  that  we  might  be  animated  by  the 
view  of  the  victorious  throng. 


298  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

There  is  here  a  new  witness  for  the  Bible,  a 
witness  accessible  to  the  meanest,  the  witness 
of  happy  lives  and  triumphant  deaths.  The  very 
peasant  masters  and  rejoices  in  this  evidence. 
The  histories  of  good  men  find  their  way  into 
his  hamlet ;  and  even  in  the  village  church-yard 
sleep  some  whose  righteousness  will  be  long  had 
in  remembrance.  And  knowing,  as  he  does,  that 
those,  whose  bright  names  thus  hallow  the  annals 
whether  of  his  country  or  his  valley,  were  M  ac- 
ceptable to  God,  and  approved  by  men,"  through 
simply  submitting  themselves  to  the  guidance  of 
Scripture ;  that  they  were  Bible  precepts  which 
made  them  the  example  and  blessing  of  their  fel- 
lows, and  Bible  promises  which  nerved  them  for 
victory  over  sorrow  and  death — has  he  not  a  no- 
ble evidence  on  the  side  of  Scripture,  an  evidence 
against  which  the  taunts  of  scepticism  are  direct- 
ed without  effect,  an  evidence  which  augments 
with  every  piece  of  christian  biography  that  comes 
into  his  possession,  and  with  every  instance  of 
christian  consistency  that  comes  under  his  ob- 
servation % 

And  what  he  thus  reads,  acts,  on  every  account, 
as  a  stimulus  to  his  own  faith  and  stedfastness. 
The  registered  experience  of  those  who  have 
gone  before,  encourages  him  to  expect  the  same 
mercies  from  the  same  God.  He  kindles  as  he 
reads  their  story.  Their  memory  rouses  him.  He 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  299 

asks  the  mantle  of  the  ascending  prophet,  that 
he  may  divide  with  it  the  waters  which  had  be- 
fore owned  its  power.  Thus  what  he  has  been 
taught  by  the  experience  of  others  confirms  his 
diligence  and  animates  his  hope. 

14-3.    Inequality  of  worldly  Condition. 

Of  how  much  beauty  should  we  strip  the  Gos- 
pel, if  we  stripped  the  world  of  poverty!  Its 
graces  are  cradled,  so  to  speak,  in  the  uneven- 
ness  and  diversity  of  human  estate.  If  I  turn,  for 
example,  to  faith,  it  will  be  conceded  on  all  hands 
that  the  unequal  distribution  of  the  good  things 
of  this  life  is  calculated  to  occasion  perplexity  to 
the  pious,  and  that  there  is  a  difficulty  of  no 
slight  dimensions,  in  reconciling  the  varieties  of 
mortal  allotments  with  the  rigid  equity  of  God's 
moral  government.  We  can  master  the  difficulty 
by  no  other  process,  save  that  of  referring  to  the 
season  when  all  the  concerns  of  the  universe  shall 
be  wound  up,  and  when,  by  a  most  august  deve- 
lopment, the  Judge,  who  sits  on  the  great  white 
throne,  shall  unravel  the  secrecies  of  every  dis- 
pensation. But  it  is  the  province  of  faith,  and 
that,  too,  of  faith  when  in  the  keenest  exercise, 
thus  to  meet  the  discrepancies  of  the  present  by 
a  bold  appeal  to  the  decisions  of  the  future.  And 
if  it  should  come  to  pass  that  there  were  no  dis- 
crepancies, which  would  be  comparatively  effect- 


300  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ed  if  the  poor  ceased  from  amongst  us  ;  then  who 
perceives  not  that  this  province  of  faith  would 
be  sensibly  circumscribed  1  The  problem  with 
which  it  is  now  most  arduous  to  grapple,  and  by 
the  grappling  with  which  faith  is  upheld  in  its  vi- 
gor-the  problem,  wherefore  does  a  merciful  Crea- 
tor leave  in  wretched  destitution  so  many  of  his 
creatures — this  would  be  necessarily  taken  out  of 
our  investigation — we  should  be  girt  about  with 
the  appearance  of  equable  dealings  in  this  life, 
and  should  seldom,  therefore,  be  thrown  for  expla- 
nations on  the  mysteries  of  the  next.  And  I  know 
not  what  consequence  can  be  more  evident,  than 
that  a  huge  field  would  thus  be  closed  against  the 
exercise  of  faith,  a  field  which  is  formed  in  its 
length  and  in  its  breadth  out  of  verification  of 
the  fact,  that  "  the* poor  we  have  always  with  us." 
But  yet  further.  If  there  were  to  be  no  longer 
any  poor,  then  it  is  evident  that  each  one  amongst 
us  would  be  in  possession  of  a  kind  of  moral  cer- 
tainty that  he  should  never  become  poor.  Pover- 
ty would  be  removed  from  the  number  of  possible 
human  conditions,  and  there  would  be  an  end  at 
once  to  those  incessant  and  tremendous  fluctua- 
tions which  oftentimes  dash  the  prosperous  on  the 
rocks  and  the  quicksands.  But  now  mark  how, 
with  the  departure  of  the  risk  of  adversity,  would 
depart  also  the  meekness  of  our  dependance  on 
the  Almighty.    We  might  instantly  remove  one 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  301 

petition  from  our  prayers,  "  give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread."  K  we  were  secure  against  poverty, 
which  we  should  be  if  poverty  had  ceased  from 
the  earth,  there  would  be  something  of  mockery 
in  soliciting  supplies,  whose  continuance  was 
matter'  of  cefrtainty  ,•  and  thus,  by  placing  man 
out  of  the  reach  of  destitution,  you  would  go  far 
to  annihilate  all  those  motives  to  simple  reliance 
which  are  furnished  by  the  vacillations  of  hu- 
man condition ;  you  would  destroy  that  liveliness 
which  is  now  the  result  of  momentary  exercise  : 
and  we  once  more  contend,  that  for  the  delicacy 
of  its  minute,  just  as  well  as  for  the  magnificence 
of  its  more  extended,  operations,  faith  is  mainly 
indebted  to  the  fact,  that  "  the  poor  we  have  al- 
ways with  us." 

144.  "  The  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together" 

There  are  obvious  ends,  which  the  continuance 
of  poverty  hath  subserved.  Let  me  premise,  that 
although  there  is  a  broad  line  of  demarcation 
separating  the  richer  from  the  poorer  classes  of 
society,  the  points  of  similarity  are  vastly  more 
numerous  than  the  points  of  distinction.  We  are 
told  in  the  book  of  Proverbs,  that  "  the  rich  and 
poor  meet  together,  the  Lord  is  the  Maker  of 
them  alL"  Where  is  it,  I  pray  you,  that  they  thus 
meet  1  Descended  from  one  common  ancestor, 
the  rich  and  poor  meet  before  Goi\  on  the  wide 
26 


302  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

level  of  total  apostasy.  This  may  be  a  hard  doc- 
trine, but  nevertheless  I  would  not  that  the  ear 
should  turn  away  from  its  truth.  Intellect  doth 
sever  between  man  and  man,  and  so  doth  learn- 
ing, and  outward  honor,  and  earthly  fortune,  and 
there  may  appear  no  intimate  link  of  association 
connecting  the  possessors  of  lofty  genius  with 
the  mass  of  dull  and  common-place  spirits,  or 
binding  together  the  great  and  the  small,  the  ca- 
ressed and  the  despised,  the  applauded  and  the 
scorned :  but  never  yet  have  the  dreams  of  revo- 
lutionary enthusiasm  assigned  so  perfect  a  level 
to  the  face  of  human  society,  as  that  upon  which 
its  several  members  do  actually  meet,  even  the 
level  of  original  sin, — the  level  of  a  total  incapa- 
city to  ward  off  condemnation.  Aliens  from  God, 
and  outcasts  from  the  light  of  his  favor,  there  is 
no  distinction  between  us  as  to  the  moral  position 
which  we  naturally  occupy  ;  but  the  rich  man  and 
the  poor  man  share  alike,  the  one  not  more  and 
the  other  not  less,  in  the  ruin  which  hath  rolled 
as  a  deluge  over  our  earth. 

145.     Existence   of  Poverty  promotive   of 
social  Virtues. 

The  distinction  of  society  into  the  poor  and 
rich,  introduces  a  large  class  of  relative  duties, 
which  would  have  no  existence,  if  "  the  poor  were 
not  always  amongst  us."    It  cannot  be  called  an 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  303 

overcharged  picture,  if  I  declare  that  the  remo- 
val of  poverty  would  go  far  towards  debasing  and 
uncivilizing  Christendom  ;  and  that  a  sudden  and 
uniform  distribution  of  wealth  would  throw  us 
centuries  back  in  the  march  of  moral  improve- 
ment. The  great  beauty  of  the  existing  state  of 
things  is,  that  men  are  dependent  one  upon  the 
other,  and  that  occasions  perpetually  present 
themselves  which  call  into  exercise  the  charities 
of  life.  We  need  only  remind  you  of  the  native 
selfishness  of  the  human  heart,  a  selfishness  which 
is  never  completely  eradicated,  but  which,  after 
years  of  patient  resistance,  will  creep  in  and  de- 
form the  most  disinterested  generosity.  And  we 
ask  you  whether, — so  far  at  least  as  our  arithme- 
tic is  capable  of  computing, — this  selfishness 
would  not  have  reigned  well  nigh  unmolested, 
had  the  world  been  quite  cleared  of  spectacles  of 
destitution,  and  if  each  man  had  been  left  with- 
out calls  to  assist  his  brethren,  seeing  that  his 
brethren  were  in  possession  of  advantages  setting 
them  free  from  all  need  of  assistance  1  Accord- 
-  ing  to  the  present  constitution,  men  are  necessa- 
rily brought  into  collision  with  distress  ;  and  the 
effect  of  the  contact  is  to  soften  down  those  as- 
perities which  deform  the  natural  character,  and 
to  plane  away  that  ruggedness  which  marks  the 
surface  of  the  untrodden  rock.  But  if  there  had 
been  no  physical  wretchedness  with  which  such 


304  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

collision  could  take  place,  then  it  appears  evident 
that  selfishness  would  have  been  left  to  grow  up 
into  a  giant  stature,  and  that  the  granite  of  the 
soul,  which,  though  hard,  may  be  chiselled,  would 
have  turned  into  adamant,  and  defied  all  impres- 
sions. 

Let  the  poor  be  no  longer  amongst  us,  and  you 
dry  up,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  scanty  foun- 
tains of  sympathy  which  still  bubble  in  the  de- 
Bert.  By  removing  exciting  causes  of  compassion, 
you  would  virtually  sweep  away  all  kindliness 
from  the  earth;  and  by  making  the  children  *of 
men  independent  of  each  other,  you  would  wrap 
up  every  one  in  his  own  passions  and  his  own  pur- 
suits, and  send  him  out  to  be  alone  in  a  multitude, 
and  thus  reduce  the  creatures  of  the  same  species 
into  so  many  centres  of  repulsion,  scornfully  with- 
standing the  approaches  of  companionship.  The 
relative  duties  of  which  poverty  is  the  parent, 
are  those  whose  discharge  is  most  humanizing  to 
the  rich,  and  at  the  same  time  most  edifyin'g  to 
the  poor.  The  wealthier  classes  of  society  are 
naturally  tempted  to  look  down  upon  the  poorer, 
and  the  poorer  are  as  naturally  tempted  to  envy 
the  wealthier  ;  so  that  the  distinctions  of  circum- 
stances make  way  for  the  trial  of  humility  in  one 
ease  and  of  contentment  in  the  other.  But  if 
there  be  truth  in  this  reasoning  ;  if  there  be  a  di- 
rect tendency  in  the  mixture  of  various  c.ondi- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  305 

tions  to  smoothing  the  roughness  of  the  human 
spirit,  and  to  the  cherishing  of  virtues  most  es- 
sentia] to  our  well-being  ;  then  may  we  not  once 
more  call  upon  ypu  to  admire  the  wisdom  of  the 
Almighty's  dispensations,  inasmuch  as  it  is  ap- 
pointed by  the  purposes  of  heaven,  that  we 
should  "have  the  poor  always  amongst  usl" 

14-6.  Pious  Poverty, 

The  spectacle  which  is  most  calculated  to  ar- 
rest us,  and  to  fill  the  vision  with  touching  deli- 
neations of  Deity,  is  that  of  earthly  destitution 
gilded  by  the  sunshine  of  celestial  consolation — 
the  spectacle  of  a  child  of  want  and  misfortune, 
laden  with  all  those  ills  which  were  bequeathed 
to  man  by  a  rebellious  ancestry,  and  nevertheless 
sustained  by  so  elastic  and  unearthly  a  vigor, 
that  he  can  walk  cheerily  through  the  midst  of 
trouble,  and  maintain  a  deep  and  rich  tranquillity 
whilst  the  hurricane  is  beating  furiously  upon 
him%  But,  comparatively,  there  could  be  no  such 
spectacle  if  there  came  an  end  to  the  appoint- 
ment, that  the  poor  we  have  always  with  us. 
Take  away  poverty,  and  a  veil  is  thrown  over 
the  perfections  of  the  Godhead  ;  for  we  could 
not  know  our  Maker  in  the  fullness  of  his  com- 
passions, if  we  knew  him  not  as  a  helper  in  the 
extremities  of  mortal  desertion.  It  is  given  as 
one  of  the  attestations  of  the  Messiahship  of 
26* 


306  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Jesus,  that  "  unto  the  poor  the  Gospel  was 
preached;"  and  we  conclude  from  this,  as  well 
as  from  the  features  of  the  Gospel  in  itself,  that 
there  is  a  peculiar  adaptation  in  the  messages  of 
the  Bible  to  the  circumstances  of  those  who  have 
hut  little  of  this  world's  goods.  And  what  need  is 
there  of  argument  to  prove,  that  never  does  this 
Gospel  put  on  an  aspect  of  greater  loveliness, 
than  when  it  addresses  itself  to  the  outcast  and 
the  destitute  1  One  might  almost  have  thought 
that  it  had  been  framed  for  the  express  purpose 
of  ministering  to  the  happiness  of  the  poor.  Unto 
the  men,  indeed,  of  every  station  it  delivers  pre- 
cepts which  may  regulate  their  duties,  and  pro- 
mises which  may  nerve  them  to  their  discharge  ; 
but  then  it  is  that  the  Gospel  appears  under  its 
most  radiant  form,  when  it  enters  the  hovel  of 
the  peasant,  and  lights  up  that  hovel  with  glad- 
ness, and  fans  the  cheek  of  the  sick  man  with 
angels'  wings,  and  causes  the  crust  of  bread  and 
the  cruse  of  water  to  be  received  as  a  banquet 
of  luxury,  and  brings  into  the  wretched  chamber 
such  a  retinue  of  ministering*  spirits,  that  he 
whom  his  fellow-men  have  loathed  and  abandon- 
ed, rises  into  the  dignity  of  a  being  whom  the 
Almighty  delighted  to  honor.  Oh,  verily,  the 
brilliant  triumph  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  of  Na- 
zareth is  won  from  the  career  of  a  man  who  pro- 
fesses godliness  in  poverty.    The  world  despises 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  307 

him,  but  lie  is  lifted  above  the  world,  and  sits  in 
heavenly  places  with  Christ :  he  has  none  of  the 
treasures  of  the  earth,  but  the  pearl  of  great  price 
he  hath  •  made  his  own :  hunger  and  thirst  he 
may  be  compelled  to  endure,  but  there  is  hidden 
manna  of  which  he  eats,  and  tjiere  are  living 
streams  of  which  he  drinks :  he  is  worn  down 
by  perpetual  toil,  and  yet  he  hath  already  enter- 
ed into  rest, — "persecuted,  but  not  forsaken; 
cast  down,  but  not  destroyed."  Make  poverty  as 
hideous  as  it  can  ever  be  made  by  the  concentra- 
tion of  a  hundred  woes, — let  it  be  a  torn,  and  de- 
graded, and  scorned,  and  reviled  estate, — still 
can  he  be  poor  of  whom  it.  is  said,  that  "  all 
things  are  his, — the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or 
things  present,  or  things  to  come, — all  are  his, 
for  he  is  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's  1"  We  call 
this  the  brilliant  triumph  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ ; 
a  triumph  from  the  study  of  which  may  be  ga- 
thered the  finest  lessons  of  Christianity ;  a  tri- 
umph over  all  with  which  it  is  hardest  for  reli- 
gion to  grapple. 

147.  Spiritual  advantages  of  P overt y. 

God  has  so  manifested  a  tender  and  impartial 
concern  for  his  creatures,  as  to  have  thrown  ad- 
vantages round  poverty  which  may  well  be  said 
to  counterbalance  its  disadvantages.  It  is  un- 
questionable that  the  condition  of  a  poor  man  is 


SOS  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

more  favorable  than  that  of  a  rich  to  the  recep- 
tion of  Christ.  Had  not  this  been  matter-of-fact, 
the  Redeemer  would  never  have  pronounced  it 
"  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  a  needle's  eye, 
than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  There  is  in  poverty  what  we  may  al- 
most call  a  natural  tendency  to  the  leading  men 
to  dependence  on  God,  and  faith  in  his  promises. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  in  wealth  just  as  na- 
tural a  tendency  to  the  production  of  a  spirit  of 
haughty  and  infidel  independence.  The  poor 
man,  harassed  with  difficulties  in  earning  a  scanty 
subsistence  for  himself  and  his  household,  will 
have  a  readier  ear  for  tidings  of  a  bright  home 
beyond  the  grave,  than  the  rich  man,  who,  lapped 
in  luxury,  can  imagine  nothing  more  delightful 
than  the  unbroken  continuance  of  present  enjoy- 
ments. Poverty,  in  short,  is  a  humiliating  and 
depressing  thing  5  whilst  affluence  nurtures  pride 
and  elation  of  mind.  And  in  proportion,  there- 
fore, as  all  which  has  kinsmanship  with  humility 
is  favorable  to  piety,  all  which  has  kinsmanship 
with  haughtiness  unfavorable,  we  may  fairly 
argue  that  the  poor  man  has  an  advantage  over 
the  rich,  considering  them  both  as  appointed  to 
immortality. 

But  not  only  has  God  thus  mercifully  introdu- 
ced a  kind  of  natural  counterpoise  to  the  allowed 
evils  of  poverty:  in  the  institution  of  a  method 


EIELE    THOUGHT*,  309 

of  redemption,  he  may  specially  be  said  to  have 
prepared  for  the  mean  and  the  destitute.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  prescribed  duties  of  religion, 
which,  in  the  least  degree,  requires  that  a  man 
should  be  a  man  of  learning  or  leisure.  We  take 
the  husbandman  at  his  plough,  or  the  manufactu- 
rer at  his  loom  ;  and  we  can  tell  him,  that,  whilst 
he  goes  on,  uninterruptedly,  with  his  daily  toil, 
the  grand  business  of  his  soul's  salvation  may 
advance  with  an  uniform  march.  We  do  not  re- 
quire that  he  should  relax  in  his  industry,  or  ab- 
stract some  hours  from  usual  occupations,  in 
order  to  learn  a  -complicated  plan,  and  study  a 
scheme  which  demands  time  and  intellect  for  its 
niastery.  The  Gospel  message  is  so  exquisitely 
simple,  the  sum  and  substance  of  truth  may  be  so 
gathered  into  brief  and  easily  understood  sen- 
tences, that  all  which  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  know  may  be  told  in  a  minute,  and  borne 
about  with  him  by  the  laborer  in  the  field,  or  the 
mariner  on  the  waters,  or  the  traveler  in  tho 
most  distant  regions  of  the  earth.  We  reckon  it 
far  the  most  wonderful  feature  in  the  Bible,  that, 
whilst  presenting  a  sphere  for  the  longest  and 
most  pains-taking  research — exhibiting  heights 
which  no  soarings  of  imagination  can  scale,  and 
depths  which  no  fathoming-line  of  intellect  can 
explore — it  sets  forth  the  way  of  salvation  with 
so  much  of  unadorned  plainness,  that  it  may  as 


310  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

readily  be  understood  by  the  child  or  the  peasant, 
as  by  the  full-grown  man  or  the  deep-read  philo- 
sopher. Who  will  keep  back  the  tribute  of  ac- 
knowledgment that  God,  of  his  goodness,  has 
prepared  for  the  poor  1 

148.  Industry. 

It  is  true  that  the  appointment,  M  in  the  sweat 
of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread, "  was  part  of  the 
original  malediction  which  apostasy  caused  to  be 
breathed  over  this  creation.  But  it  is  equally  true 
that  labor  was  God's  ordinance^  whilst  man  kept 
unsullied  his  loyalty,  and  that  it  was  not  bound 
upon  our  race  as  altogether  a  consequence  on 
transgression.  We  may  not  believe  that  in  para- 
dise labor  could  ever  have  been  wearisome  ;  but 
we  know  that,  from  the  first,  labor  was  actually 
man's  business.  We  are  told,  in  the  book  of  Gene- 
sis, that  when  the  Lord  God  had  planted  the  gar- 
den, and  fashioned  man  after  his  own  image,  r'  lie 
took  the  man  and  put  him  into  the  garden,  to  dress 
it,  and  to  keep  it."  There  was  no  curse  upon  the 
ground  ;  anct,  therefore,  we  suppose  not  that  it 
required,  ere  it  would  give  forth  a  produce,  the 
processes  of  a  diligent  husbandry.  But,  never- 
theless, it  is  clear  that  the  resting  of  God's  first 
blessing  on  the  soil  put  riot  aside  ail  necessity  of 
culture.  Man  was  a  laborer  from  the  beginning  : 
God's  earliest  ordinance  appearing  to  have  been, 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  Sll 

that  man  should  not  be  an  idler.  So  that  whilst 
we  admit  that  all  that  painfulness  and  exhaustion 
which  waits  ordinarily  upon  human  occupation, 
must  be  traced  up  to  disobedience  as  a  parent,  we 
contend  that  employment  is  distinctly  God's  in- 
stitution for  mankind,  no  reference  whatsoever 
being  made  to  the  innocence  or  guiltiness  of  tbo 
race.  God  sanctified  the  seventh  day  as  a  day  of 
rest,  before  Adam  disobeyed,  and  thus  marked 
out  six  days  as  days  of  labor  and  employment, 
before  sin  sowed  the  seeds  of  the  thorn  and  the 
thistle.  We  may  suppose,  that,  previously  to  tbo 
fall,  labor,  so  to  speak,  was  just  one  department 
of  piety  ;  and  that  in  tilling  the  ground,  or  watch- 
ing the  herds,  man  was  as  religiously  occupied  as 
when  communing  with  God  in  distinct  acts  of  de- 
votion. The  great  and  fatal  alteration  which  sin 
has  introduced  into  labor,  is,  that  a  wide  separa.- 
tion  has  been  made  between  temporal  business 
and  spiritual ;  so  that,  whilst  engaged  in  provid- 
ing for  the  body,  we  seem  wholly  detached  from 
paying  attention  to  the  concerns  of  the  soul.  But 
we  hold  it  of  first-rate  importance  to  teach  men 
that  this  separation  is  of  their  own  making,  and 
not  of  God's  appointing.  God  ordained  labor : 
and  God  also  ordained  that  man's  great  business 
on  earth  should  be  to  secure  his  soul's  safety 
through  eternity.  And  unless,  therefore,  we  ad- 
mit that  the  work  of  the  soul's  salvation  may  be 


312  BIBLE    THOUGHTS, 

actually  advanced  by,  and  through,  our  worldly 
occupations,  we  set  one  ordinance  of  God  against 
another,  and  represent  ourselves  as  impeded,  by 
the  appointments  of  our  Maker,  in  the  very  busi- 
ness most  pressed  on  our  performance.  The  mat- 
ter-of-fact is,  that  God  may  as  truly  be  served  by 
the  husbandman  whilst  ploughing  up  his  ground, 
and  by  the  manufacturer  whilst  toiling  at  his  loom, 
and  by  the  merchant  whilst  engaged  in  his  com- 
merce, as  he  can  be  by  any  of  these  men  when 
gathered  by  the  Sabbath-bell  to  the  solemn  as- 
sembly. It  is  a  perfect  libel  on  religion,  to  repre- 
sent the  honest  trades  of  mankind  as  aught  else 
but  the  various  methods  in  which  God  may  be 
honored  and  obeyed.  We  do  not  merely  mean 
that  worldly  occupations  may  be  followed  with- 
out harm  done  to  the  soul.  This  would  be  no 
vindication  of  God's  ordinance  of  labor.  We 
mean  that  they  may  be  followed  with  benefit  to 
the  soul.  When  God  led  the  eastern  magi  to 
Christ,  he  led  them  by  a  star.  He  attacked  them, 
so  to  speak,  through  the  avenue  of  their  profes- 
sion. Their  great  employment  was  that  of  observ- 
ing the  heavenly  bodies.  And  God  sanctified  their 
astronomy.  He  might  have  taught  them  by  other 
methods  which  seem  to  us  more  direct.  But  it 
pleased  him  to  put  honor  on  their  occupation, 
and  to  write  his  lessons  in  that  glittering  alpha- 
bet with  which  their  studies  had  made  them   es- 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  313 

pecially  conversant.  We  believe,  in  like  manner, 
that  if  men  went  to  their  daily  employments  with 
something  of  the  temper  which  they  bring  to  the 
ordinances  of  grace,  expecting  to  receive  messa- 
ges from  God  through  trade,  and  through  labor, 
as  well  as  through  preaching  and  a  communion, 
there  would  be  a  vast  advancing  towards  spiritual 
excellence  ;  and  men's  experience  would  be,  that 
the  Almighty  can  bring  him  into  acquaintance 
with  himself,  by  the  ploughshare,  and  the  balances, 
and  the  cargo,  no  less  than  by  the  sermon,  and 
the  closet-exercises,  and  the  public  devotions. 
There  would  be  an  anticipation  of  the  glorious 
season,  sketched  out  by  prophecy,  when-  "  there 
shall  be  upon  the  bells  of  the  horses,  holiness  un- 
to the  Lord,  and  the  pots  in  the  Lord's  house 
shall  be  like  the  bowls  before  the  altar."1 

We  give  this  as  our  belief ;  and  we  advance  as 
our  reason,  the  fact  that  labor  is  the  ordinance  of 
God.  We  will  not  have  industry  set  against  piety  ; 
as  though  the  little  time  which  men  can  snatch 
from  secular  engagements  were  the  only  time 
which  they  can  give  to  their  Maker.  They  may 
give  all  to  God,  and,  nevertheless,  be  compelled  to 
rise  early,  and  late  take  rest,  in  order  to  earn  a 
scanty  subsistence.  And  we  think,  that,  in  placing 
an  apostle  under  the  necessity  of  laboring  for 
bread,  God  assigned  precisely  that  character  to  in- 
dustry for  which  we  contend.  There  is  no  incon- 
27 


314  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

sistency  between  the  being  a  devoted  servant  of 
Christ,  and  the  following  assiduously  a  toilsome 
occupation.  At  the  least,  there  is  a  registered  de- 
monstration in  the  case  of  St.  Paul,  that  unwearied 
industry — for  he  elsewhere  declares  that  he  la- 
bored day  and  night — may  consist  with  pre-emi- 
nent piety  ;  and  that,  so  far  from  the  pressure  of 
secular  employment  being  a  valid  excuse  for  slow 
progress  in  godliness,  a  man  may  have  to  strug- 
gle against  absolute  pauperism,  and  yet  grow, 
every  moment,  a  more  admirable  christian.  Oh, 
there  is  something  in  this  representation  of  the 
honor  put  by  God  upon  industry,  which  should 
tell  powerfully  on  the  feelings  of  those  to  whom 
life  is  one  long  striving  for  the  means  of  subsis- 
tence. It  were  as  nothing  to  tell  men,  you  may 
be  good  christians  in  spite  of  your  engrossing 
employments.  The  noble  truth  is,  that  these  em- 
ployments may  be  so  many  helpers  on  of  reli- 
gion ;  and  that,  in  place  of  serving  as  leaden 
weights,  which  retard  a  disciple  in  his  celestial 
career,  they  may  be  as  the  well-plumed  wings, 
accelerating  gloriously  the  onward  progress.  In 
laboring  to  support  himself,  St.  Paul  labored  to 
advance  Christ's  cause.  And  though  there  be 
not  always  the  same  well-defined  connection  be- 
tween our  toils  for  a  livelihood  and  the  interests 
of  religion,  yet,  let  a  connection  be  practically 
sought   after,  and  it  will  always  be  practically 


BIBLE    THOUGHia.  315 

found.  The  case  exists  not  in  which,  after  mak- 
ing it  obligatory  on  a  man  that  he  work  for  his 
bread,  God  has  not  arranged,  that,  in  thus  work- 
ing, he  may  work  also  for  the  well-being  of  his 
soul.  If  ever,  therefore,  we  met  with  an  indivi- 
dual who  pleaded  that  there  were  already  so  ma- 
ny calls  upon  his  time  that  he  could  not  find  lei- 
sure to  give  heed  to  religion,  we  should  not  im- 
mediately bear  down  upon  him  with  the  charge 
— though  it  might  be  a  just  one — of  an  undue 
pursuit  of  the  things  of  this  earth.  We  should 
only  require  of  him  to  show  that  his  employ- 
ments were  Scripturally  lawful,  both  in  nature 
and  intenSeness.  We  should  then  meet  him,  at 
once,  on  the  ground  of  this  lawfulness.  We 
should  tell  him  that  employments,  in  place  of  be- 
ing excuses  for  his  not  serving  God,  were  ap- 
pointed as  instruments  by  which  he  might  serve 
Him  ;  and  that,  consequently,  it  was  only  because 
he  had  practically  dissolved  a  partnership  which 
the  Almighty  had  formed,  the  partnership  be- 
tween industry  and  piety,  that  he  was  driving  on, 
with  a  reckless  speed,  to  a  disastrous  and  despe- 
rate bankruptcy.  And  if  he  pretended  to  doubt 
that  piety  and  industry  have  thus  been  associated 
by  God,  we  would  take  him  with  us  into  the  work- 
chamber  of  St.  Paul ;  and  there  showing  him  the 
apostle  toiling  against  want,  and  yet,  in  toiling, 
serving  Christ  Jesus — subsisting  by  his  artisan- 


316  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

ship,  and  yet  feeding  the  zeal  of  his  soul  by  and 
through  his  labors  for  the  support  of  his  body— 
we  would  tell  the  questioner,  that  God  thus  caus- 
ed a  mighty  specimen  to  be  given  of  an  institut- 
ed connection  between  secular  employment  and 
spiritual  improvement ;  and  whilst  we  send  him 
to  the  writings  of  St.  Paul  that  he  may  learn  what 
it  is  to  be  industriously  religious,  we  send  him  to 
the  tent-making  of  St.  Paul  that  he  may  learn 
what  it  is  to  be  religiously  industrious. 

149.  Popular  Education. 

There  have  been  times  when  it  was  necessary 
to  debate  and  demonstrate  the  duty  of  providing 
instruction  for  the  children  of  the  poor.  Such 
times  are  gone.  We  have  now  no  choice.  He 
were  as  wise  a  man  who  should  think  to  roll 
back  the  Atlantic,  as  he  who  would  stay  the  ad- 
vancing tide  of  intelligence  which  is  pressing 
through  the  land.  You  cannot  if  you  would. 
And  I  do  not  believe  there  is  one  who  would  lift  a 
finger  in  so  unrighteous  an  enterprise.  Here,  if 
any  where,  a  man  may  glory  in  that  general  out- 
stretching of  the  human  mind  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  times  ;  and  rejoice  in  the  fact,  that 
in  knowledge,  and  mental  developement,  the 
poorer  classes  are  following  so  close  on  the 
wealthier,  that  these  latter  must  go  onward  with 
a  vigorous  stride,  if  they  would  not  be  quickly 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  317 

overtaken.  Knowledge  is  a  general  and  commu- 
nicative thing,  and  jealousy  at  its  progress  is 
ordinarily  the  index  of  its  wants.  You  would  not, 
if  you  could,  arrest  the  progress  of  education. 
But  you  may  provide  that  the  education  shall  be 
christian  education.  You  may  thus  insure  that 
education  shall  be  a  blessing,  not  a  curse  ;  and 
save  the  land  from  being  covered  with  that  wildest 
and  most  unmanageable  of  all  populations,  a  po- 
pulation mighty  alike  in  intellect  and  ungodli- 
ness, a  population  that  knows  every  thing  but 
God,  emancipated  from  all  ignorance  but  that 
which  is  sure  to  breed  the  worst  lawlessness,  ig- 
norance of  the  duties  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 
An  uneducated  population  may  be  degraded;  a 
population  educated,  but  not  in  righteousness, 
will  be  ungovernable.  The  one  may  be  slaves, 
the  other  must  be  tyrants. 

150.  Afflictions  of  the  Righteous. 

If  there  be  one  season  at  which,  more  than  at 
another,  the  righteous  feel  the  worth  of  revela- 
tion, and  the  blessedness  of  obeying  its  precepts, 
the  season  must  be  that  of  danger  and  trouble. 
Whether  the  danger  and  trouble  be  public  or  do- 
mestic ;  whether  it  be  his  country,  or  only  his 
own  household,  over  which  calamity  hangs ;  the 
man  of  piety  finds  a  consolation  in  religion 
which  makes  him  more  than  ever  prize  the  re- 
27* 


318  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

vealed  will  of  God.  There  is  a  beauty  and  energy 
in  the  Bible  which  nothing  but  affliction  can  bring 
out  and  display ;  and  men  know  comparatively 
little  of  the  preciousness  of  scriptural  promises, 
and  the  magnificence  of  scriptural  hopes,  until 
placed  in  circumstances  of  difficulty  and  distress. 
There  are  always  one  or  two  stations  from  which 
you  gain  the  best  view  of  a  noble  and  diversified 
landscape  ;  and  it  is  when  M  constrained  to  dwell 
with  Meshech,  and  to  have  our  habitation  among 
the  tents  of  Kedar,"  that  our  gaze  includes  most 
of  what  is  glorious  and  brilliant  in  the  scheme 
of  divine  mercy.  It  is  the  promise  of  God  in  the 
91st  Psalm — a  promise  addressed  to  every  one 
who  makes  God  his  trust, — "  I  will  be  with  him 
in  trouble. "  But  when  or  where  is  God  not  with 
us  1  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit,  or  whither 
shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  1  Indeed  we  well 
know  that  every  where  is  the  universe  full  of 
Deity,  and  that  at  no  time,  and  in  no  place,  can 
we  be  at  a  distance  from  God;  and  yet,  as  though 
in  the  day  of  darkness  and  disaster,  the  Omnipre- 
sent could  so  redouble  his  presence,  that  every 
other  day  should  be,  in  comparison,  one  of  ab- 
sence, the  promise  is,  w  I  will  be  with  him  in 
trouble."  And  the  promise  is  so  fulfilled  in  the 
experience  of  the  righteous,  that  they  will  own 
their  sorrows  to  have  been  far  more  than  com- 
pensated by  the  consolations  afforded  in  the  hour 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  319 

of  tribulation,  so  that  it  would  have  been  clearly 
for  their  loss  to  have  escaped  their  trials.  They 
are  gainers  by  their  troubles — for  God  removes 
no  good  without  leaving  a  greater ;  if  he  take 
away  an  earthly  friend,  he  gives  them  more  of 
himself. 

151.  Consolations  of  Religion  on  the  loss  of 
Friends. 

Let  us  take  the  case  of  most  frequent  occur- 
rence, but  of  which  frequency  diminishes  nothing 
of  the  bitterness.  We  mean  the  case  of  the  loss 
of  friends,  the  case  in  which  death  makes  way 
into  a  family,  and  carries  off  one  of  the  most  be- 
loved of  its  members.  It  is  night,  deep  night,  in 
a  household,  whensoever  this  occurs.  When  the 
loss  is  of  another  kind,  it  may  admit  of  repair. 
Property  may  be  injured,  some  cherished  plan 
may  be  frustrated — but  industry  may  be  again 
successful,  and  hope  may  fix  its  eye  on  other  ob- 
jects. But  when  those  whom  we  love  best  die, 
there  is  no  comfort  of  this  sort  with  which  we 
can  be  comforted.  For  a  time,  at  least,  the  loss 
seems  irreparable  ;  so  that,  though  the  wounded 
sensibilities  may  afterwards  be  healed,  and  even 
turn  to  the  living  as  they  turned  to  the  dead,  yet, 
whilst  the  calamity  is  fresh,  we  repulse,  as  inju- 
rious, the  thought  that  the  void  in  our  affections 
can  ever  be  filled,  and  are  persuaded  that  the 


320  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

blank  in  the  domestic  group  can  be  occupied  bj 
nothing  but  the  hallowed  memory  of  the  buried. 
It  is  therefore  night  in  the  household,  darkness, 
a  darkness  that  may  be  felt.  And  philosophy 
comes  in,  with  its  well-meant  but  idle  endeavors 
,  to  console  those  who  sit  in  this  darkness.  It  can 
speak  of  the  unavoidableness  of  death,  of  the  duty 
of  bearing  with  manly  fortitude  what  cannot  be 
escaped,  of  the  injuriousness  of  excessive  grief; 
and  it  may  even  hazard  a  conjecture  of  reunion 
in  some  world  beyond  the  grave.  And  pleasure 
approaches  with  its  allurements  and  fascinations, 
offering  to  cheat  the  mind  into  forgetfulness,  and 
wile  the  heart  from  its  sadness.  But  neither 
philosophy  nor  pleasure  can  avail  any  thing  in 
the  chamber  of  death — the  taper  of  the  one  is  too 
faint  for  so  oppressive  a  gloom,  and  the  torch  of 
the  other  burns  sickly  in  so  unwonted  an  atmos- 
phere. Is  then  the  darkness  such  that  those  whom 
it  envelopes  are  incapable  of  being  comforted  % 
Oh,  not  so.  There  may  be  those  amongst  your- 
selves who  can  testify,  that,  even  in  a  night  so 
dreary  and  desolate,  there  is  a  source  whence 
consolation  may  be  drawn.  The  promises  of 
Scripture  are  never  more  strikingly  fulfilled  than 
when  death  has  made  an  inroad,  and  taken  away, 
at  a  stroke,  some  object  of  deep  love.  Indeed  it 
is  God's  own  word  to  the  believer,  w  I  will  be 
with  him  in  trouble  " — as  though  that  presence, 


BIBL.Y    THOUGHTS.  321 

which  can  never  be  withdrawn,  then  became  more 
real  and  intense. 

What  are  we  to  say  of  cases  which  continually- 
present  themselves  to  the  parochial  minister  1 
He  enters  a  house,  whose  darkened  windows 
proclaim  that  one  of  its  inmates  is  stretched  out 
a  corpse.  He  finds  that  it  is  the  fairest  and  dear- 
est whom  death  has  made  his  prey,  and  that  the 
blow  has  fallen  where  sure  to  be  most  deeply 
felt.  And  he  is  prepared  for  the  burst  of  bitter 
sorrow.  He  knows  that  the  heart,  when  most  pu- 
rified by  grace,  is  made  of  feeling  stuff;  for  grace, 
which  removes  the  heart  of  stone,  and  substitutes 
that  of  flesh,  will  refine,  rather  than  extinguish, 
human  sensibilities.  But  what. words  does  he  hear 
from  lips  whence  nothing  but  lamentation  might 
have  been  expected  to  issue  1  "  The  Lord  gave, 
and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away,  blessed  be  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  The  mother  will  rise  up 
from  the  side  of  her  pale  still  child ;  and  though 
on  the  cheek  of  that  child  (alas,  never  again  to 
be  warm  with  affection)  there  are  tears  which 
show  how  a  parent's  grief  has  overflowed,  she 
will  break  into  the  exclamation  of  the  Psalmist, 
"I  will  sing  of  mercy  and  judgment,  unto  thee, 
O  Lord,  will  I  sing."  And  when  the  slow  wind- 
ings of  the  funeral  procession  are  seen,  and  the 
minister  advances  to  meet  the  train,  and  pours 
forth  the  rich  and  inspiriting  words,  ff  I  am  the 


322  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Resurrection  and  the  Life ;  he  that  believeth  in 
me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live  " — is  it 
only  the  low  murmur  of  suppressed  anguish  by 
which  he  is  answered  1  can  he  not  feel  that  there 
are  those  in  the  group  whose  hearts  bound  at  the 
magnificent  announcement  1  and,  as  he  looks  at 
the  mourners,  does  he  not  gather,  from  the  up- 
lifted eye  and  the  moving  lip,  that  there  is  one  at 
least  who  is  triumphing  in  the  fulfillment  of  the 
prediction,  "  O  death,  I  will  be  thy  plagues ;  O 
grave,  I  will  be  thy  destruction  T' 

And  what  are  we  to  say  to  these  things  1  what 
but  that,  in  the  deepest  moral  darkness,  there  can 
be  music,  music  which  sounds  softer  and  sweeter 
than  by  day ;  and  that,  when  the  instruments  of 
human  melody  are  broken,  there  is  a  hand  which 
can  sweep  the  heart-strings  and  wake  the  notes  of 
praise  1  Yes,  philosophy  can  communicate  no 
comfort  to  the  afflicted  ;  it  may  enter  where  all  is 
night  j  but  it  leaves  what  it  found,  even  weeping 
and  wailing.  And  pleasure  may  take  the  lyre, 
whose  strains  have  often  seduced  and  enchanted  ; 
but  the  worn  and  wearied  spirit  has  no  ear,  in  the 
gloom,  for  what  sounded  magically,  when  a  thou- 
sand lights  were  blazing.  But  religion,  faith  in 
the  promises  of  that  God  who  is  the  Husband  of 
the  widow  and  the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  this 
can  cause  the  sorrowing  to  be  glad  in  the  midst 
of  their  sorrow. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS,  323 

152.  Persecution. 

Persecution,  in  its  most  terrific  forms,  is  only 
the  development  of  a  principle  which  must  un- 
avoidably exist,  until  either  Christianity  or  human 
nature  be  altered.  There  is  a  necessary  repug  - 
nance  between  Christianity  and  human  nature. 
The  two  cannot  be  amalgamated,  One  must  be 
changed  before  it  will  combine  with  the  other. 
And  we  fear  that  this  is,  in  a  degree,  an  over« 
looked  truth,  and  that  men  are  disposed  to  assign 
persecution  to  local  or  temporary  causes.  But 
we  wish  you  to  be  clear  on  the  fact,  that  "  the 
offence  of  the  cross"  has  not  ceased,  and  cannot 
cease.  We  readily  allow  that  the  form,  under 
which  the  hatred  manifests  itself,  will  be  sensibly 
affected  by  the  civilization  and  intelligence  of 
the  age.  In  days  of  an  imperfect  refinement  and 
a  scanty  literature,  you  will  find  this  hatred  un- 
sheathing the  sword  and  lighting  the  pile  :  but 
when  human  society  is  at  a  high  point  of  polish 
and  knowledge,  and  the  principles  of  religious 
toleration  are  well  understood,  there  is  perhaps, 
comparatively,  small  likelihood  that  savage  vio- 
lence will  be  the  engine  employed  against  godli- 
ness. Yet  there  are  a  hundred  batteries  which 
may  and  will  be  opened  upon  the  righteous.  The 
follower  of  Christ  must  calculate  on  many  sneers, 
and  much  reviling.  He  must  look  to  meet  often 
with  coldness  and  contempt,  harder  of  endurance 


324-  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

than  many  forms  of  martyrdom  ;  for  the  courage 
which  could  march  to  the  stake  may  be  daunted 
by  a  laugh.  And,  frequently,  the  opposition  as- 
sumes a  more  decided  shape.  The  parent  will  act 
harshly  towards  the  child ;  the  superior  with- 
draw his  countenance  from  the  dependent ;  and 
all  because  of  a  giving  heed  to  the  directions  of 
Scripture.  Religion,  as  though  it  were  rebellion, 
alienates  the  affections,  and  alters  the  wills,  of 
fathers  and  guardians.  So  that  we  tell  an  indivi- 
dual that  he  blinds  himself  to  plain  matters  of 
fact,  if  he  espouse  the  opinion  that  the  apostle's 
words  applied  only  to  the  first  ages  of  Christi- 
anity, "  all  that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus 
shall  suffer  persecution."  To  live  godly  in  Christ 
Jesus,  is  to  have  put  enmity  between  yourselves 
and  the  seed  of  the  serpent ;  and  you  may  be  as- 
sured, that  unless  this  enmity  be  nominal  on 
your  side,  it  will  manifest  itself  by  acts  on  the 
other. 

153.  Trials  of  the  Christian. 

It  is  our  nature  to  rejoice  when  all  within  and 
without  is  undisturbed ;  the  miracle  is  to  "  re- 
joice in  tribulation ;"  and  this  miracle  is  conti- 
nually wrought  as  the  believer  presses  through 
the  wilderness.  The  harp  of  the  human  spirit 
never  yields  such  sweet  music,  as  when  its  frame- 
work is  most  shattered,  and  its  strings  are  most 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  325 

torn.  Then  it  is,  when  the  world  pronounces  the 
instrument  useless,  and  man  would  put  it  away 
as  incapable  of  melody,  that  the  finger  of  God 
delights  in  touching  it,  and  draws  from  it  a  fine 
swell  of  harmony.  Come  night,  come  calamity, 
come  affliction.  God  still  says  to  his  people,  a9 
be  said  to  the  Jews,  when  expecting  the  irrup- 
tion of  the  Assyrian,  ,f  ye  shall  have  a  song,  as 
in  the  night.'* 

154.     Death-bed  of  the  Righteous. 

We  look  not,  indeed,  always  for  triumph  and 
rapture  on  the  death-beds  of  the  righteous.  We 
hold  it  to  be  wrong  to  expect,  necessarily,  en- 
couragement for  ourselves  from  good  men  in  the 
act  of  dissolution.  They  require  encouragement. 
Christ,  when  in  his  agony,  did  not  strengthen 
others:  he  needed  an  angel  to  strengthen  himself. 
But  if  there  be  not  ecstacy,  there  is  that  com- 
posedness,  in  departing  believers,  which  shows 
that  "  the  everlasting  arms  "  are  under  them  and 
around  them.  It  is  a  beautiful  thing  to  see  a 
Christian  die.  The  confession,  whilst  there  is 
strength  to  articulate,  that  God  is  faithful  to  his 
promises ;  the  faint  pressure  of  the  hand,  giving 
the  same  testimony  when  the  tongue  can  no 
longer  do  its  office ;  the  motion  of  the  lips,  inducing 
you  to  bend  down,  so  that  you  catch  broken  syl- 
lables of  expressions  such  as  this,  "  come,  Lord 
28 


326  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

Jesus,  come  quickly ;"  these  make  the  chambex 
in  which  the  righteous  die  one  of  the  most  privi- 
leged scenes  upon  earth ;  and  he  who  can  be  pre- 
sent, and  gather  no  assurance  that  death  is  fet- 
tered and  manacled,  even  whilst  grasping  the 
believer,  must  be  either  inaccessible  to  moral 
evidence,  or  insensible  to  the  most  heart-touch- 
ing appeal. 

155.    Parents. 

A  minister,  if  he  would  be  faithful  to  his  call- 
ing, must  mark  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  endea- 
vor so  to  shape  his  addresses  that  they  may  meet, 
and  expose,  the  prominent  errors.  Now  we  think 
that,  in  our  own  day,  there  is  a  strong  disposi- 
tion to  put  aside  the  Bible,  and  to  seek  out  other 
agency  for  accomplishing  results  which  God  hath 
appointed  it  to  effect.  We  fear,  for  example,  that 
the  intellectual  benefits  of  Scriptural  knowledge 
are  well-nigh  entirely  overlooked \  and  that,  in 
the  efforts  to  raise  the  standard  of  mind,  there  is 
little  or  no  recognition  of  the  mighty  principle, 
that  the  Bible  outweighs  ten  thousand  encyclo 
paedias.  And  we  are  fearful  on  your  account,  lest 
something  of  this  national  substitution  of  human 
literature  for  divine  should  gain  footing  in  your 
households.  We  fear  lest,  in  the  business  of  edu- 
cation, you  should  separate  broadly  that  teaching 
which  has  to  do  with  the  salvation  of  the  soul, 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  327 

from  that  which  has  to  do  with  the  improvement 
of  the  mind.  We  refer  to  this  point,  hecause  we 
think  ourselves  bound,  by  the  vows  of  our  calling, 
to  take  every  opportunity  of  stating  the  duties 
which  devolve  on  you  as  parents  or  guardians. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  may  be  affirmed  that 
souls,  those  mysterious  and  imperishable  things, 
are  given  into  the  custody  of  every  father  of  a 
family.  And  we  are  persuaded  that  if  there  be 
one  thing  on  this  earth  which  draws,  more  than 
another,  the  sorrowing  regards  of  the  world  of 
spirits,  it  must  be  the  system  of  education  pursu- 
ed by  the  generality  of  parents.  The  entering  a 
room  gracefully  is  a  vast  deal  more  attended  to 
than  the  entering  into  heaven  5  and  you  would  con- 
clude that  the  grand  thing  for  which  God  had  sent 
the  child  into  the  world,  was  that  it  might  catch 
the  Italian  accent,  and  be  quite  at  home  in  every 
note  of  the  gamut.  Christianity,  indeed,  is  not  at 
variance  with  the  elegancies  of  life  :  she  can  use 
them  as  her  handmaids,  and  give  them  a  beauty 
of  which,  out  of  her  service,  they  are  utterly  des- 
titute. We  wage  no  war,  therefore,  with  accom- 
plishments, any  more  than  with  the  solid  acquire- 
ments of  a  liberal  education.  We  are  only  anx- 
ious to  press  on  you  the  necessity  that  ye  make 
religion  the  basis  of  your  system.  We  admit,  in 
all  its  breadth,  the  truth  of  the  saying,  that  know- 
ledge is  power.    It  is  power — aye,  a  fatal  and  a 


328  BIBLE    THOTTGHTS. 

perilous.  Neither  the  might  of  armies,  nor  the 
scheming  of  politicians,  avails  any  thing  against 
this  power.  The  school-master  is  the  grand  en- 
gine for  revolutionizing  a  world.  Let  knowledge 
be  generally  diffused,  and  the  fear  of  God  be  kept 
in  the  background,  and  you  have  done  the  same 
for  a  country  as  if  you  had  laid  the  gunpowder 
under  its  every  institution  :  there  needs  only  the 
igniting  of  a  match,  and  the  land  shall  be  strew- 
ed with  the  fragments  of  all  that  is  glorious  and 
venerable.  But,  nevertheless,  we  would  not  have 
knowledge  chained  up  in  the  college  and  monas- 
tery, because  its  arm  is  endowed  with  such  sinew 
and  nerve.  We  would  not  put  forth  a  finger  to 
uphold  a  system  which  we  believe  based  on  the 
ignorance  of  a  population.  We  only  desire  to 
see  knowledge  of  God  advance  as  the  vanguard 
of  the  host  of  information.  We  are  sure  that  an 
intellectual  must  be  a  mighty  peasantry.  But  we 
are  equally  sure  that  an  intellectual,  and  a  god- 
less, will  demonstrate  their  might  by  the  ease 
with  which  they  crush  whatever  most  adorns  and 
elevates  a  nation.  And  in  speaking  to  you  indivi- 
dually of  your  duties  as  parents,  we  would  bring 
into  the  family-circle  the  principles  thus  announc- 
ed as  applicable  to  the  national.  We  want  not  to 
set  bounds  to  the  amount  of  knowledge  which 
you  strive  to  impart.  But  never  let  this  remem- 
brance be  swept  from  your  minds — that,  to  giv« 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  329 

a  child  knowledge  without  endeavoring,  at  the 
same  time,  to  add  to  knowledge  godliness,  is  to 
do  your  best  to  throw  the  momentum  of  the  giant 
into  the  arm  of  the  idiot ;  to  construct  a  ma- 
chinery which  may  help  to  move  a  world,  and  to 
leave  out  the  spring  which  would  ensure  its  mov- 
ing it  only  towards  God.  We  would  have  you  shun, 
even  as  you  would  the  tampering  with  an  immor- 
tality deposited  in  your  keeping,  the  imitating 
what  goes  on  in  a  thousand  of  the  households  of 
a  professedly  christian  neighborhood — the  chil- 
dren can  pronounce  well,  and  they  can  step  well, 
and  they  can  play  well ;  the  mother  proudly  ex- 
hibits the  specimens  of  proficiency  in  painting, 
and  the  father  dwells,  with  an  air  of  delight,  on 
the  progress  made  in  Virgil  and  Homer — but  if 
you  inquire  how  far  these  parents  are  providing 
for  their  own  in  the  things  of  eternity,  why,  the 
children  perhaps  read  a  chapter  occasionally  on 
a  Sunday  afternoon.  And  that  ye  may  avoid  the 
mistake  into  which,  as  we  think,  the  temper  of 
the  times  is  but  too  likely  to  lead  you,  we  would 
have  you  learn,  that,  in  educating  your  children 
for  the  next  life,  you  best  educate  them  for  the 
present.  We  give  it  you  as  a  truth  made  known 
to  us  by  God,  and  at  the  same  time  demonstrable 
by  reason,  that,  in  going  through  the  courses  of 
Bible-instruction,  there  is  better  mental  disci- 
pline, whether  for  a  child  or  an  adult,  than  in  any 
28* 


330  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

of  the  cleverly  devised  methods  for  opening-  and 
strengthening  the  faculties.  We  say  not  that  the 
study  of  Scripture  should  exclude  other  studies, 
or  be  substituted  for  them.  Natural  philosophy 
is  not  to  be  learned  from  Scripture  nor  general 
history ;  and  we  would  not  have  such  matters 
neglected.  But  we  say  that  Scriptural  study 
should  be,  at  once,  the  ground-work  and  compa- 
nion of  every  other  ;  and  that  the  mind  will  ad- 
vance, with  the  firmest  and  most  dominant  step, 
into  the  various  departments  of  knowledge,  when 
familiarized  with  the  truths  of  revelation,  and  ac- 
customed to  walk  their  unlimited  extent.  If  pa- 
rents had  no  higher  ambition  than  to  make  their 
children  intellectual,  they  would  act  most  shrewd- 
ly by  acting  as  though  desirous  to  make  them  re- 
ligious. It  is  thus  we  apply  our  subject  to  those 
amongst  you  who  are  parents  or  guardians.  But 
it  applies  to  all.  We  call  upon  you  all  to  observe, 
that,  in  place  of  being  beneath  the  notice  of  the 
intellectual,  the  Bible  is  the  great  nourisher  of 
intellect.  We  require  of  you  to  treasure  in  your 
minds,  as  an  undeniable  fact,  that  to  care  for  the 
soul  is  to  cultivate  the  mind.  We  will  not  yield 
the  culture  of  the  understanding  to  earthly  hus- 
bandmen. There  are  heavenly  ministers  who 
water  it  with  a  choicer  dew,  and  pour  on  it  the 
beams  of  a  more  brilliant  sun,  and  prune  its 
branches  with  a  kinder  and  more  skillful  hand. 


BII.LE    THOTTGHTS.  331 

We  will  not  give  up  reason  to  stand  always  as  a 
priestess  at  the  altars  of  human  philosophy.  She 
hath  a  more  majestic  temple  to  tread,  and  more 
beauteous  robes  wherein  to  walk,  and  incense 
rarer  and  more  fragrant  to  burn  in  golden  censers. 
She  does  well  when  exploring  boldly  God's  visi- 
ble works.  She  does  better,  when  she  meekly 
submits  to  spiritual  teaching,  and  sits,  as  a  child, 
at  the  Saviour's  feet :  for  then  shall  she  experi- 
ence the  truth,  that  "  the  entrance  of  God's  words 
giveth  light  and  understanding."  And,  therefore, 
be  ye  heedful — the  young  amongst  you  more  es- 
pecially— that  ye  be  not  ashamed  of  piety,  as 
though  it  argued  a  feeble  capacity.  Rather  be 
assured,  forasmuch  as  revelation  is  the  great 
strengthener  of  reason,  that  the  march  of  mind 
which  leaves  the  Bible  in  the  rear  is  an  advance, 
like  that  of  our  first  parents  in  Paradise,  towards 
knowledge,  but,  at  the  same  time,  towards  death. 

156.    The  Young. 

I  would  speak  affectionately  to  you  who  are  in 
the  bloom  of  your  days,  and  conjure  you,  "  if 
there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise," 
to  "  remember  your  Creator  in  the  days  of  your 
youth."  Whilst  you  are  still  strangers  to  the  se- 
ductions of  an  ensnaring  world,  I  would  warn 
you  against  the  evils  which  will  gird  you  round 
when  you  go  forth  from  the  peaceful  asylums  of 


332  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

your  childhood,  and  mix,  as  you  unavoidably  must, 
with  those  who  lie  in  wait  to  destroy  the  unwary. 
I  would  tell  you  that  there  is  no  happiness  but  in 
the  fear  of  the  Almighty ;  that  if  you  would  so  pass 
through  life  as  not  to  tremble  and  quail  at  the 
approach  of  death,  make  it  your  morning  and 
your  evening  prayer,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may 
take  possession  of  your  souls,  and  lead  you  so 
to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity,  that  you  may 
not  be  allured  from  the  holiness  of  religion  by 
any  of  the  devices  of  a  wicked  generation.  You 
read  of  a  monarch  who  wept  as  his  countless  ar- 
my passed  before  him,  staggered  by  the  thought, 
that  yet  a  few  years,  and  those  stirring  hosts 
would  lie  motionless  in  the  chambers  of  the  grave. 
Might  not  a  christian  minister  weep  over  you,  as 
he  gazes  on  the  freshness  of  your  days,  and  con- 
siders that  it  is  but  too  possible,  that  you  may 
hereafter  give  ear  to  the  scorner  and  the  seducer. 
Thus  might  the  buds  of  early  promise  be  nipped  ; 
and  it  might  come  to  pass,  that  you,  the  children, 
it  may  be,  of  pious  parents,  over  whose  infancy  a 
godly  father  may  have  watched,  and  whose  open^ 
ing  hours  may  have  been  guarded  by  the  tender 
solicitudes  of  a  righteous  mother,  would  entail 
on  yourselves  a  heritage  of  shame,  and  go  down 
at  the  judgment  into  the  pit  of  the  unbeliever 
and  the  profligate.  Let  this  warning  word  be  re- 
membered by  you  all :  it  is  simple  enough  for  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  333 

youngest,  it  is  important  enough  for  the  eldest. 
You  cannot  begin  too  soon  to  serve  the  Lord,  but 
you  may  easily  put  it  off  too  long  ;  and  the  thing 
which  will  be  least  regretted  when  you  come  to 
die  is,  that  you  gave  the  first  days  of  existence 
to  preparation  for  heaven. 

157.  Missions. 

H  you  kept  out  of  sight  the  more  important 
ends  subserved  by  the  disclosures  of  the  Bible, 
there  would  be  no  single  gift  for  which  men 
etood  so  indebted  to  the  Almighty  as  for  the  re- 
velation of  himself  in  the  pages  of  Scripture. 
The  great  engine  of  civilization  is  still  the  writ- 
ten word  of  the  Most  High.  And  if  you  visit  a 
tribe  of  our  race  in  the  lowest  depths  of  barba- 
rism, and  desire  to  bring  up  the  debased  crea- 
tures, and  place  them  on  their  just  level  in  the 
6cale  of  existence,  it  is  not  by  the  enactments  of 
earthly  legislation,  any  more  than  by  the  tyran- 
nizings  of  earthly  might,  that  you  may  look  to 
bring  speedily  round  the  wished-for  result.  Tbfc 
effective  machinery  is  Christianity,  and  Christi- 
anity alone.  Propagate  the  tenets  of  this  reli- 
gion, as  registered  in  the  Bible,  and  a  mighty  re- 
generation will  go  out  over  the  face  of  the  long- 
degraded  community. 

We  need  hardly  appeal,  in  proof  of  this  asser- 
tion, to  the  records  of  the  effects  of  missionary 


334  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

enterprise.  You  are  all  aware,  that,  in  many  in- 
stances, a  great  change  has  been  wrought,  by  the 
labors  of  faithful  and  self-denying  men,  on  the 
savage  clans  amongst  which  they  have  settled. 
We  omit,  for  the  present,  the  incalculable  advan- 
tages consequent  on  the  introduction  of  Christi- 
anity, when  another  state  of  being  is  brought 
into  the  account.  We  consider  men  simply  with 
respect  to  their  sojourning  upon  earth  j  and  we 
contend  that  the  revolution  effected  in  temporal 
affairs,  should  win,  even  from  those  who  prize 
not  its  disclosures  in  regard  to  eternal,  the  warm- 
est admiration  for  the  Bible.  There  has  suc- 
ceeded to  lawlessness  and  violence  the  beautiful 
scenery  of  good  order  and  peace.  The  rude 
beings,  wont  to  wander  to  and  fro,  alternately  the 
prey  and  the  scourge  of  neighboring  tribes,  have 
settled  down  to  the  quiet  occupations  of  industry ; 
and,  gathering  themselves  into  villages,  and  ply- 
ing the  business  of  handicraft  or  agriculture, 
have  presented  the  aspect  of  a  Well-disciplined 
society  in  exchange  for  that  of  a  roving  and  pi- 
ratical horde.  And  when  a  district  which  has 
heretofore,  both  morally  and  physically,  been  lit- 
tle better  than  a  desert,  puts  forth  in  all  its  out- 
spread the  tokens  of  a  vigorous  culture  ;  and  the 
Sabbath-bell  summons  from  scattered  cottages  a 
smiling  population,  linked  together  by  friendship, 
and  happy  in  all  the  sweetness  of  domestic  cha- 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  335 

rities ;  why,  the  infidel  must  be  something  less 
than  a  man,  if,  with  all  his  contempt  for  the  Bible 
as  a  revelation  from  God,  he  refuse  to  admire 
and  esteem  it  as  a  noble  engine  for  uplifting  hu- 
manity from  its  deep  degradations. 

•  >    I 
158.  Past  and  present  Times, 

There  is  a  singular  verse  in  the  Book  of  Eccle- 
siastes  which  appears  directed  against  a  common, 
though,  perhaps,  unsuspected  error.  "  Say  not 
thou  what  is  the  cause  that  the  former  days  were 
better  than  these  1  for  thou  dost  not  inquire 
wisely  concerning  this."  We  believe  that  there 
exists  a  disposition  in  persons,  and  especially  in 
old  persons,  to  set  present  years  in  contrast  with 
the  past,  and  to  prove,  from  the  comparison,  a 
great  and  ongoing  deterioration  in  the  character 
of  mankind.  And  it  is  quite  certain,  that,  if  this 
disposition  were  observable  in  Solomon's  days, 
as  well  as  in  our  own,  it  must  pass  ordinarily  as 
the  mark  of  a  jaundiced  and  ill-judging  mind. 
If  it  have  been  true  in  some  ages,  it  cannot  have 
been  in  all,  that  the  moral  aspect  of  the  times 
has  grown  gradually  darker.  We  must  be  war- 
ranted, therefore,  in  ascribing  a  disposition  which 
has  subsisted  through  days  of  improvement,  as 
well  as  of  declension,  to  a  peevish  determination 
to  find  fault,  and  not  to  a  sober  sitting  in  judg- 
ment upon  matters  of  fact. 


336  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

159.  Insanity* 

One  malady  there  is — the  greatest,  I  may  call 
it,  to  which  flesh  is  heir,  the  unhappy  suhjects  of 
which  have  a  more  than  common  claim  on  bene- 
volence. It  is  much  that  accident  and  sickness 
should  befall  the  body ;  but  the  climax  of  afflic- 
tion is  not  reached  until  the  mind  itself  is  out  of 
joint.  So  long  as  the  soul  retains  possession  of 
her  capacities,  man,  however  assaulted,  however 
agonized,  falls  not  from  his  rank  in  the  scale  of 
creation,  but  rather,  by  displaying  the  superiority 
of  the  immortal  over  the  mortal,  proves  himself 
the  denizen  of  a  mightier  sphere.  Man  is,  then, 
most  illustrious  and  most  dignified  when  his  spi- 
ritual part  rises  up  unshattered  amid  the  ruins  of 
the  corporeal,  and  gives  witness  of  destinies  co- 
eval with  eternity,  by  showing  an  independence 
on  the  corrodings  of  time.  But  when  the  battery 
of  attack  has  been  turned  upon  the  mind,  when 
reason  has  been  assaulted  and  hurled  from  her 
throne,  oh !  then  it  is  that  the  spectacle  of  hu- 
man distress  is  one  upon  which  even  the  beings 
of  a  higher  intelligence  than  our  own  may  look 
sadly  and  pitifully ;  for  the  link  of  communion 
with  the  long  hereafter  seems  thus  almost  dissev- 
ered, and  that  pledge  of  an  unbounded  duration, 
— a  pledge  of  which  no  bodily  decay  can  spoil  us 
— a  pledge  which  is  won  by  the  soul  out  of  the 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  337 

breakings-up  of  bone  and  sinew— for  a  while  is 
torn  away  from  man. 

160.  Controversy 

Though  controversy  have  its  evils,  it  has  also 
its  uses.  We  never  infer,  that,  because  there  is 
no  controversy  in  a  church,  there  must  be  the 
upholding  of  sound  doctrine.  It  is  not  the  stag- 
nant water  which  is  generally  the  purest.  And 
if  there  are  no  differences  of  opinion  which  set 
men  on  examining  and  ascertaining  their  own 
belief,  the  probability  is,  that,  like  the  Samari- 
tans of  old,  they  will  worship  they  "  know  not 
what."  Heresy  itself  is,  in  one  sense,  singularly 
beneficial.  It  helps  to  sift  a  professing  commu- 
nity, and  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat. 
And  whilst  the  unstable  are  carried  about  by  the 
winds  of  false  doctrine,  those  who  keep  their 
stedfastness  find,  as  it  were,  their  moral  atmo- 
sphere cleared  by  the  tempest.  We  consider  this 
statement  to  be  that  of  St  Paul,  when  he  says  to 
the  Corinthians,  M  There  must  be  also  heresies 
amongst  you,  that  they  which  are  approved  may 
be  made  manifest."  And  it  is  not  the  mere  se- 
paration of  the  genuine  from  the  fictitious  which 
is  effected  through  the  publication  of  error.  We 
hold  that  heresies  have  been  of  vast  service  to 
the  church,  in  that  they  have  caused  truth  to  be 
more  thoroughly  scanned,  and  all  its  bearings 
29 

■ 


338  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

and  boundaries  explored  with  a  most  pains-taking 
industry.  It  is  astonishing  how  apt  men  are  to 
rest  in  general  and  ill-defined  notions,  so  that, 
when  interrogated  and  probed  on  an  article  of 
faith,  they  show  themselves  unable  to  give  ac- 
count of  their  belief.  When  a  new  error  is  pro- 
pounded, you  will  find  that  candid  men  will  con- 
fess, that,  on  examining  their  own  views  on  the 
litigated  point,  they  have  found  them  in  many 
respects  vague  and  incoherent ;  so  that,  until 
driven  to  the  work  of  expounding  and  defining, 
they  have  never  suspected  their  ignorance  upon 
matters  with  which  they  professed  themselves 
altogether  familiar.  We  think  that  few  men 
would  have  correct  notions  of  truth,  unless  oc- 
casionally compelled  to  investigate  their  own 
opinions.  They  take  for  granted  that  they  under- 
stand what  they  believe.  But  when  heresy  or 
controversy  arises,  and  they  are  required  to  state 
wThat  they  hold,  they  will  themselves  be  surprised 
at  the  confusion  of  their  sentiments.  We  are  per- 
suaded, for  example,  that,  however  mischievous 
in  many  respects  may  have  been  the  modern  agi- 
tation of  the  question  of  Christ's  humanity,  the 
great  body  of  christians  have  been  thereby  ad- 
vantaged. Until  the  debate  was  raised,  hundreds 
and  thousands  were  unconsciously  holding  error. 
Being  never  required  to  define  the  true  doctrine 
of  the  Saviour's  person,  they  never  doubted  that 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS,  339 

they  knew  and  understood  it,  though,  all  the 
while,  they  either  confounded  the  natures,  or 
multiplied  the  person ;  or — and  this  was  the  or- 
dinary case — formed  no  idea  at  all  on  so  myste- 
rious, yet  fundamental  a  matter.  Thus  contro- 
versy stirs  the  waters,  and  prevents  their  grow- 
ing stagnant.  We  do  not  indeed  understand  from 
the  "  must  he"  of  St.  Paul,  that  the  well-being 
of  the  church  is  dependent  on  heresy,  so  that, 
unless  heresy  enter,  the  church  cannot  prosper. 
But  we  can  readily  suppose  that  God,  foreknow- 
ing the  corruptions  which  would  he  attempted 
of  the  Gospel,  determined  tq  employ  these  cor- 
ruptions as  instruments  for  speeding  onward  the 
growth  in  grace  of  his  people.  The  "  must  be" 
refers  to  human  depravity  and  satanic  influence. 
It  indicates  a  necessity  for  which  the  creature 
alone  is  answerable,  whilst  the  end,  which  here- 
sies subserve,  is  that  which  most  engages  the 
interferences  of  the  Creator. 

161.  Memory. 

What  a  power  is  there  in  memory  when  made 
to  array  against  a  guilty  individual  past  days, 
and  scenes  of  comparative  innocence.  It  is  with 
an  absolutely  crushing  might  that  the  remem- 
brance of  the  years  and  home  of  his  boyhood 
will  come  upon  the  criminal,  when  brought  to  a 
pause  in  his  career  of  misdoing,   and  perhaps 


340  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

about  to  suffer  its  penalties.  If  we  knew  his  early- 
history,  and  it  would  bear  us  out  in  the  attempt, 
we  should  make  it  our  business  to  set  before  him 
the  scenery  of  his  native  village,  the  cottage 
where  he  was  born,  the  school  to  which  he  wa3 
sent,  the  church  where  he  first  heard  the  preached 
Gospel ;  and  we  should  call  to  his  recollection 
the  father  and  the  mother,  long  since  gathered  to 
their  rest,  who  made  him  kneel  down  night  and 
morning,  and  who  instructed  him  out  of  the  Bible, 
and  who  warned  him,  even  with  tears,  against 
evil  ways  and  evil  companions.  We  should  re- 
mind him  how  peacefully  his  days  then  glided 
away  ;  with  how  much  of  happiness  he  was  bless- 
ed in  possession,  how  much  of  hope  in  prospect. 
And  he  may  be  now  a  hardened  and  desperate 
man  :  but  we  will  never  believe,  that,  as  his  young 
days  were  thus  passing  before  him,  and  the  re- 
verend forms  of  his  parents  came  back  from  the 
grave,  and  the  trees  that  grew  round  his  birth- 
place waved  over  him  their  foliage,  and  he  saw  him- 
self once  more  as  he  was  in  early  life,  when  he 
knew  crime  but  by  name,  and  knew  it  only  to  ab- 
hor— we  will  never  believe  that  he  could  be  proof 
against  this  mustering  of  the  past — he  might  be 
proof  against  invective,  proof  against  reproach, 
proof  against  remonstrance  ;  but  when  we  brought 
memory  to  bear  upon  him,  and  bade  it  people  itself 
with  all  the  imagery  of  youth,  we  believe  that,  for 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  31«1 

the  moment  at  least,  the  obdurate  being  would  be 
subdued,  and  a  sudden  gush  of  tears  prove  that  we 
had  opened  a  long  sealed-up  fountain, 

And  we  know  no  reason  why  there  should  not 
be  a  like  power  in  memory,  in  cases  which  have 
no  analogy  with  this,  except  in  the  general  fact, 
that  men  are  not  what  they  were.  If  we  array  be- 
fore us  the  records  of  man's  pristine  condition, 
and  avail  ourselves  of  such  intelligence  as  it  hath 
pleased  God  to  vouchsafe,  we  may  with  sufficient 
truth  be  said  to  remember  whence  we  fell.  And 
very  energetic  and  persuasive  would  be  this  re- 
membrance. We  should  feel  that  we  were  gain- 
ing a  great  moral  hold  on  a  man,  if  we  prevailed 
on  him  to  contrast  what  he  is,  with  what  Adarr. 
was  ere  he  ate  the  forbidden  fruit  It  is  a  con- 
trast which  must  produce  the  sense  of  utter  de- 
gradation. The  waving  trees  of  paradise,  and 
the  glorious  freshness  of  the  young  creation,  and 
the  unrestrained  intercourse  with  God,  and  the 
beautiful  tranquillity  of  human  life — these  will 
make  the  same  kind  of  appeal,  as  the  fields  where 
we  played  in  our  boyhood,  and  the  roof  which 
sheltered  us  whilst  yet  untutored  in  the  vices, 
and  unblenched  by  the  sorrows,  of  the  world. 

162.  The  Jews. 

The  predictions  which  bear  reference  to  the 
Jews,  have  this  advantage  over  all  other,  that 

29* 


342  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

their  accomplishment,  may  be  said  to  force  itself 
on  the  notice  of  the  least  observant,  and  not  to 
require,  in  order  to  its  demonstration,  the  labor 
of  a  learned  research.  Of  all  surprising  pheno- 
mena, there  is  perhaps  none  as  wonderful  as  that 
of  the  Jews'  preserving,  through  long  centuries, 
their  distinguishing  features.  It  would  have  been 
comparatively  nothing,  had  the  Jews  remained 
in  Judea,  that  they  should  have  continued  marked 
off  from  every  other  people.  But  that  they  should 
have  been  dispersed  into  all  nations,  and  yet  have 
amalgamated  with  none ;  that  they  should  bo 
every  where  found,  and  yet  be  every  where  the 
same ;  that  they  should  submit  themselves  to  all 
forms  of  government,  and  adopt  all  varieties  of 
customs,  and  yet  be  unable,  after  any  lapse  of 
time,  to  extirpate  their  national  marks ;  we  may 
pronounce  this  unparalleled  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  and  inexplicable  but  as  the  fulfillment 
of  prophecy.  If  the  Jews,  though  removed  from 
their  own  land,  had  been  confined  to  one  other, 
we  might  have  found  causes  of  a  protracted  dis- 
tinction, in  national  antipathies  or  legislative  en- 
actments. But  when  the  dispersion  has  been  so 
universal,  that,  wheresoever  man  treads,  the  Jew 
has  made  his  dwelling,  and  yet  the  distinction  is 
so  abiding  that  you  may  always  recognise  the 
Jew  for  yourself,  there  is  no  place  left  for  the 
explanations   which   might  be   given,  were  the 


BTBLE    THOUGHTS.  343 

marvel  limited  to  a  district  or  age  ;  and  we  have 
before  us  a  miracle,  which  would  not  be  exceeded, 
nay,  not  by  the  thousandth  part  equalled,  were 
we  privileged  to  behold  the  mightiest  suspension 
of  the  known  laws  of  nature. 

Neither  is  it  only  in  the  preservation  of  their 
distinguishing  characteristics  that  the  Jews  are 
wonderful,  and  give  evidence  that  Christ  pro- 
phesied through  a  more  than  human  foresight. 
The  continued  infidelity  of  the  Jews  is  every  jot 
as  surprising  as  their  continued  separation.  We 
are  quite  at  a  loss,  on  any  natural  principles,  to 
account  for  their  infidelity.  It  is  easy  to  explain 
the  little  way  which  the  Gospel  makes  amongst 
the  heathen,  but  not  the  far  less  which  it  makes 
amongst  the  Jews.  I  may  well  expect  to  be  met 
by  a  most  vigorous  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
heathen ;  for  I  go  to  them  with  a  religious  system 
which  demands  the  unqualified  rejection  of  their 
own;  we  have  scarcely  an  inch  of  ground  in  com- 
mon j  and  if  I  would  prevail  on  them  to  receive 
as  true  what  I  bring,  I  must  prevail  on  them  to 
renounce  as  false  what  they  believe.  But  the  case 
seems  widely  different  when  my  attack  is  on  the 
Jew.  We  have  a  vast  deal  of  common  ground. 
We  believe  in  the  same  God ;  we  receive  the 
same  Scriptures;  we  look  for  the  same  Messiah. 
There  is  but  one  point  of  debate  between  us ;  and 
that   is,  whether   Jesus   of  Nazareth   were  the 


344  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

Christ.  And  thus  the  field  of  argument  is  sur- 
prisingly narrowed;  in  place  of  having  to  fight 
our  way  painfully  from  one  principle  to  another, 
and  of  settling  all  the  points  of  natural  religion, 
as  preliminary  to  the  introduction  of  the  myste- 
ries of  revealed,  we  can  go  at  once  to  the  single 
truth  at  issue  between  us,  and  discuss,  from  writ- 
ings which  we  equally  receive  as  inspired,  the 
claims  of  Jesus  to  being  the  Messiah.  Surely  it 
might  have  been  expected,  that  the  infidelity  of 
the  Jew  would  have  been  far  more  easily  over- 
come than  that  of  the  heathen  ;  and  that,  in  set- 
ting ourselves  to  win  converts  to  Christianity, 
there  would  have  been  a  better  prospect  of  gain- 
ing credence  for  the  New  Testament  where  the 
Old  was  acknowledged,  than  of  making  way  for 
the  whole  Bible,  where  there  was  nothing  but 
idolatry. 

You  are  to  add  to  this,  that,  whatever  the  like- 
lihood that  the  Jew  would  reject  Christianity  on 
its  first  publication,  it  was  a  likelihood  which  di- 
minished with  every  year  that  rolled  away  5  inas- 
much as  every  year  which  brought  no  other  Mes- 
siah, swelled  the  demonstration  that  Jesus  was 
the  Christ.  It  is  not  to  be  explained,  on  any  of 
the  principles  to  which  we  ordinarily  recur  in 
accounting  for  infidelity,  why  the  Jews  persisted 
in  rejecting  Jesus,  when  the  time  had  long  passed 
which  themselves  fixed  for  Messiah's  appearing. 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  345 

Their  prophecies  had  clearly  determined  that 
Christ  would  come  whilst  the  second  temple  was 
standing,  and  at  the  close  of  seventy  weeks  from 
the  termination  of  the  Babylonish  captivity.  But 
when  the  second  temple  had  been  long  even  with 
the  ground,  and  the  seventy  weeks,  on  every  pos- 
sible computation,  had  long  ago  terminated,  the 
Jews,  we  might  have  thought,  would  have  been 
compelled  to  admit,  either  that  Messiah  had  come, 
or  that  their  expectation  was  vain,  and  that  no 
deliverer  would  appear.  There  seemed  no  alter- 
native, if  they  rejected  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  the 
rejecting  their  own  Scriptures.  So  that  we  can 
have  no  hesitation  in  affirming,  that  the  continued 
infidelity,  like  the  continued  separation,  of  the 
Jews  is  wholly  inexplicable,  unless  referred  to 
the  appointment  and  judgment  of  God.  We  can 
no  more  account,  on  any  common  principles,  for 
their  persisting  in  expecting  a  Redeemer,  when 
the  predictions  on  which  they  rest  manifestly  per- 
tain to  a  long-departed  age,  than  for  their  retain- 
ing all  their  national  peculiarities,  when  they 
have  been  for  centuries  M  without  a  king,  and 
without  a  prince,  and  without  a  sacrifice."  In 
both  cases  they  accomplish,  and  that,  too,  most 
signally,  the  prophecies  of  Christ — their  house 
being  left  unto  them  desolate,  and  a  judicial 
blindness  having  settled  on  their  understanding. 
And  never,  therefore,  should  we  meet  a  Jew, 


346  BIBLE   THOUGHTS. 

without  feeling  that  we  meet  the  strongest  wit- 
ness for  the  truth  of  our  religion.  I  know  not 
how  those,  who  are  proof  against  all  other  testi- 
mony, can  withstand  that  furnished  by  the  con- 
dition of  the  Jews.  They  may  have  their  doubts 
as  to  the  performance  of  the  miracles  recorded 
in  the  writings  of  evangelists  ;  but  here  is  a  mi- 
racle, wrought  before  their  eyes,  and  which 
ceases  not  to  be  miracle  because  long  continued. 
We  call  it  miracle,  because  altogether  contrary 
to  what  we  had  reason  to  expect,  and  not  to  be 
explained  on  mere  natural  principles.  That  the 
Jews  have  not  ceased  to  be  Jews ;  that,  though 
scattered  over  the  world,  domesticated  in  every 
land,  at  one  time  hunted  by  persecution  and 
ground  down  by  oppression,  at  another,  allowed 
every  privilege  and  placed  on  a  footing  with  the 
natives  of  the  soil,  there  has  been  a  proved  im- 
possibility of  wearing  away  their  distinguishing 
characteristics,  and  confounding  them  with  any 
other  tribes — is  not  this  marvelous  1  That,  more- 
over, throughout  their  long  exile  from,  their  own 
land,  they  have  held  fast  the  Scriptures  which 
prove  their  hopes  vain,  and  appealed  to  prophets, 
who,  if  any  thing  better  than  deceivers,  accuse 
them  of  the  worst  crime,  and  convict  them  of  the 
worst  madness — we  affirm  of  this,  that  it  is  a  pro- 
digy without  equal  in  all  the  registered  wonders 
which  have  been  known  on  our  earth :  and  I  want 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  347 

nothing  more  to  assure  me  that  Christ  came  from 
God,  and  that  he  had  a  superhuman  power  of  in- 
specting distant  times,  than  the  evidence  vouch- 
safed, when  I  turn  from  surveying  the  once 
chosen  people,  and  hear  the  Redeemer  declaring, 
in  his  last  discourse  in  the  temple,  that  their 
house  should  be  left  unto  them  desolate,  and  that 
a  moral  darkness  should  long  cloud  their  under- 
standing. 

163.    Chrisfs  denunciation  of  the  Jews* 

The  Saviour  is  taking  his  farewell  of  those 
whom  he  hac^striven,  by  every  means,  to  lead  to 
repentance.  He  had  wrought  the  most  wonder- 
ful miracles,  and  appealed  to  them  in  proof  that 
he  came  forth  from  God.  He  had  delivered  the 
most  persuasive  discourses,  setting  forth,  under 
variety  of  imagery,  the  ruin  that  would  follow 
his  being  rejected,  and  offering  the  largest  bless- 
ings to  all  who  would  come  to  him  as  a  deliverer. 
But  all  had  been  in  vain :  and  he  knew  that  the 
time  was  at  hand,  when  the  measure  of  guilt 
would  be  filled  up,  and  their  Messiah  be  crucified 
by  the  Jews.  Yet  he  would  not  depart  without 
another  and  a  bolder  remonstrance.  It  is  the  part- 
ing sermon  of  Christ,  and  without  parallel  in  the 
Gospels  for  indignant  rebuke  and  emphatic  de- 
nunciation. The  preacher  seems,  for  a  while,  to 
have  laid  aside  his  meekness,  and  to  have  assumed 


34>8  BIBLE    THOUGHTS, 

the  character  of  a  stern  herald  of  wrath.  And  1 
know  not  that  there  is  any  where  to  be  found 
such  a  specimen  of  lofty  and  withering  elo- 
quence. You  cannot  read  it  without  emotions  of 
awe,  and  almost  of  fear.  Confronted  by  those 
who,  he  knew,  thirsted  for  his  blood,  Christ  in- 
trepidly charged  them  with  their  crimes,  and  pre- 
dicted their  punishment.  Had  he  been  invested 
with  all  human  authority,  in  place  of  standing  as 
a  defenceless  and  despised  individual,  he  could 
not  have  uttered  a  sterner  and  more  heart- 
searching  invective.  The  marvel  is,  that  his  ene- 
mies should  have  allowed  him  to  pour  forth  his 
tremendous  oratory,  that  they  did  not. fall  upon 
him,  without  regard  to  the  sacredness  of  the 
place,  and  take  a  fierce  and  summary  revenge. 
,f  Wo  unto  you,  scribes  and  pharisees,  hypo- 
crites !"  is  the  burden  of  his  address :  he  reite- 
rates the  wo,  till  the  temple  walls  must  have  rung 
with  the  ominous  syllables.  And  then  he  bids  the 
nation  fill  up  the  measure  of  their  fathers.  Their 
fathers  had  slain  the  prophets,  and  made  great 
advances  towards  that  ripeness  of  iniquity  which 
was  to  mark  the  land  out  as  ready  for  vengeance. 
But  the  national  guilt  was  not  yet  complete. 
There  was  a  crime  by  which  the  children  were 
to  outdo,  and,  at  the  same  time,  consummate  the 
sinfulness  of  their  fathers.  And  Christ  calls  them 
to  the  perpetration  of  this  crime.    They  were 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  349 

bent  on  accomplishing  his  death — let  them  nail 
him  to  the  cross,  and  then  would  their  guiltiness 
reach  its  height,  and  the  accumulated  vengeance 
descend  with  a  wild  and  overwhelming  might. 
"  That  upon  you  may  come  all  the  righteous 
blood  shed  upon  the  earth,  from  the  blood  of 
righteous  Abel  unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias,  son 
of  Barachias,  whom  ye  slew  between  the  temple 
and  the  altar.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  all  these 
things  shall  come  upon  this  generation." 

And  here  the  Saviour  might  be  said  to  have 
exhausted  threatening ;  for  what  denunciation 
could  be  more  tremendous,  or  more  comprehen- 
sive 1  We  may  picture  him  to  ourselves,  launch- 
ing this  terrible  sentence,  a  more  than  human  fire 
in  his  eye,  and  a  voice  more  deep-toned  and 
thrilling  than  ever  issued  from  mortal  lips.  I 
know  of  nothing  that  would  be  more  sublime 
and  commanding  in  representation,  if  there  could 
be  transferred  to  the  canvass  the  vivid  delinea- 
tions of  thought,  than  the  scene  thus  enacted  in 
the  temple.  We  figure  the  Redeemer  undaunted 
by  the  menacing  looks  and  half-suppressed  mur- 
murs of  the  fierce  throng  by  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded. He  becomes  more  and  more  impassion- 
ed in  his  eloquence,  rising  from  one  bold  rebuke 
to  another,  and  throwing  into  his  language  a 
greater  and  greater  measure  of  reproachfulness 
and  defiance.  And  when  he  has  compelled  his 
30 


350  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

hearers  to  shrink  before  the  rush  of  his  invective, 
he  assumes  the  prophetic  office,  and,  as  though 
armed  with  all  the  thunders  of  divine  wrath,  an- 
nounces authoritatively  the  approach  of  unpa- 
ralleled desolation.  This  is  the  moment  we  would 
seize  for  delineation — though  what  pencil  can 
think  to  portray  the  lofty  bearing,  the  pre-emi- 
nent dignity,  the  awful  glance,  the  terribleness, 
yet  magnificence,  of  gesture,  which  must  have 
characterized  the  Mediator,  when,  wrought  up 
into  all  the  ardency  of  superhuman  zeal,  he  brake 
into  the  overwhelming  malediction,  M  Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  all  these  things  shall  come  upon 
this  generation  1" 

164.  Christ's  lamentation  over  Jerusalem. 

No  sooner  had  Christ  reached  that  height  of 
intrepid  vehemence  at  which  we  have  just  be- 
held him,  than  he  gave  way  to  a  burst  of  tender- 
ness, and  changed  the  language  of  invective  for 
that  of  lamentation.  At  one  moment  he  is  deal- 
ing out  the  arrows  of.  a  stern  and  lacerating  ora- 
tory, and,  the  next,  he  is  melted  into  tears,  and 
can  find  no  words  but  those  of  anguish  and  re- 
gret. Indeed  it  is  a  transition  more  exquisitely 
beautiful  than  can  be  found  in  the  most  admired 
specimens  of  human  eloquence ;  and  we  feel 
that  there  must  have  passed  a  change  over  the 
countenance,  and  the  whole  bearing  of  the  Sa- 


BIBLE   THOUGHTS.  351 

viour,  which  imagination  cannot  catch,  and 
which,  if  it  could,  the  painter  could  not  fix. 
There  must  have  risen  before  him  the  imagery 
of  a  wrath  and  a  wretchedness,  such  as  had  never 
yet  overtaken  any  nation  of  the  earth.  And  the 
people  that  should  be  thus  signalled  out  were  his 
countrymen,  his  kinsmen  after  the  flesh,  over 
whom  his  heart  yearned,  and  whom  he  had  affec- 
tionately labored  to  convince  of  danger,  and  con- 
duct to  safety.  He  felt  therefore,  we  may  believe, 
a  sudden  and  excruciating  sorrow,  so  that  the 
judgments  which  he  foretold  pressed  on  his  own 
spirit,  and  caused  him  deep  agony.  He  was  too 
pure  a  being,  and  he  loved  with  too  abiding  and 
disinterested  a  love,  to  harbor  any  feeling  allied 
with  revenge ;  and,  therefore,  though  it  was  for 
rejecting  himself  that  those  whom  he  addressed 
were  about  to  be  punished,  he  could  not  contem- 
plate the  punishment  but  with  bitterness  and 
anguish. 

And  hence  the  rapid  and  thrilling  change  from 
the  preacher  of  wrath  to  the  mourner  over  suffer- 
ing. Hence  the  sudden  laying  aside  of  all  his 
awful  vehemence,  and  the  breaking  into  pathetic 
and  heart-touching  expressions.  Oh,  you  feel 
that  the  Redeemer  must  have  been  subdued,  as  it 
were,  and  mastered,  by  the  view  of  the  misery 
which  he  saw  coming  on  Judea,  and  by  the  re- 
membrance of  all  he  had  done  to  avert  it  from 


352  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

the  land,  ere  he  could  have  passed  thus  instanta- 
neously from  indignant  rebuke  to  exquisite  ten- 
derness. And  it  cannot,  we  think,  be  without 
mingled  emotions  of  awe  and  delight,  that  you 
mark  the  transition  from  the  herald  of  vengeance 
to  the  sympathizer  with  the  wretched.  Just  as 
you  are  shrinking  from  the  fierce  and  withering" 
denunciations,  almost  scathed  by  the  fiery  elo- 
quence which  glares  and  flashes  with  the  anger 
of  the  Lord— just  as  you  are  expecting  a  new 
burst  of  threatening,  a  further  and  wilder  male- 
diction from  the  voice  which  seems  to  shake  the 
magnificent  temple — there  is  heard  the  sound  as 
of  one  who  is  struggling  with  sorrow ;  and  in  a 
tone  of  rich  plaintiveness,  in  accents  musical  in 
their  sadness,  and  betraying  the  agony  of  a 
stricken  spirit,  there  fall  upon  you  these  touch- 
ing and  penetrating  words,  u  O  Jerusalem,  Jeru- 
salem, how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her 
chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not.'* 

165.  Conversion  of  the  Jews. 

If  we  have  at  heart  the  advance  of  Christianity, 
we  shall  be  much  in  prayer  for  the  conversion 
of  the  Jews.  '.'  Ye  that  make  mention  of  the 
Lord,"  saith  the  prophet  Isaiah,  "  keep  not  si- 
lence, and  give  him  no  rest,  till  he  establish,  and 
till  he  make  Jerusalem  a  praise  in  the  earth.'1    I 


BIBLE    THOUGHTS.  353 

have  more  than  sympathy  with  the  Jews  as  a 
people  chastened  for  the  sin  of  their  ancestors  : 
I  have  an  indistinct  feeling  of  reverence  and  awe, 
as  knowing  them  reserved  for  the  most  glorious 
allotments.  It  is  not  their  sordidness,  their  de- 
gradation, nor  their  impiety — and  much  less  is  it 
their  suffering — which  can  make  me  forget  either 
the  vast  debt  we  owe  them,  or  the  splendid  sta- 
tion which  they  have  yet  to  assume.  That  my 
Redeemer  was  a  Jew,  that  his  apostles  were 
Jews,  that  Jews  preserved  for  us  the  sacred  ora- 
cles, that  Jews  first  published  the  tidings  of  sal- 
vation, that  the  diminishing  of  the  Jews  was  the 
riches  of  the  Gentiles — I  were  wanting  in  com- 
mon gratitude,  if,  in  spite  of  all  this,  I  were  con- 
scious of  no  yearnings  of  heart  towards  the  ex- 
iles and  wanderers.  But,  asks  St.  Paul,  "  if  the 
casting  away  of  them  be  the  reconciling  of  the 
world,  what  shall  the  receiving  of  them  be  but 
life  from  the  dead  V  And  if  indeed  the  univer- 
sal reign  of  Christ  cannot  be  introduced  until 
the  Jews  are  brought,  like  Paul,  their  great  type, 
to  preach  the  faith  which  now  they  despise, 
where  can  be  our  sincerity  in  putting  up  conti- 
nually the  prayer,  "  thy  kingdom  come,"  if  we 
have  no  longing  for  the  home-gathering  of  the 
scattered  tribes,  no  earnestness  in  supplication 
that  the  veil  may  be  taken  from  the  heart  of  the 

Israelite  1 

30* 


354  BIBLE    THOUGHTS. 

We  bid  you,  therefore,  examine  well,  whether 
you  assign  the  Jew  his  scriptural  place  in  the 
economy  of  redemption,  and  whether  you  give 
him  his  due  share  in  your  intercessions  with 
your  Maker.  You  owe  him  much ;  yea,  vastly 
more  than  you  can  ever  compute.  The  branches 
were  broken  off ;  and  we,  being  wild  olive  trees, 
Were  grafted  in  amongst  them.  But  the  natural 
branches  shall  be  again  grafted  into  their  own 
olive  tree.  And  when  they  are  thus  grafted, 
then — and  who  will  not  long,  who  will  not  pray 
for  such  result  1 — the  seed  which  was  less,  when 
sown,  than  all  the  seeds  in  the  earth,  shall  grow 
suddenly  into  a  plant  of  unrivalled  stature  and 
efflorescence  ;  the  whole  globe  shall  be  canopied 
by  the  far-spreading  boughs,  and  the  fowls  of  the 
air  shall  lodge  under  its  shadow. 


THE    END. 


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